Surely if they combined efforts with the Vorbis people to improve their codec for low-bandwidth streams, the two development teams could produce a single codec that's better positioned to push aside the more popular codecs like Microsoft's ASF? Seems like a terrible waste of effort to write this from scratch.
Btw. I tried the demo but it's only available in (Microsoft Windows?) binary executable format with no source available.
I've had some experience with Wipro in the past. It's a softwaresweatshop based in India. I guess that's how Sun can affort to devote 50 whole programmers to GNOME. Does the GNOME community really want to be associated with this kind of establishment?
Sure, I could configure it myself. Hell, I could download Slashcode, set it up to use the RSS provided by Slashdot and then tweak the Perl code to my heart's content.
That's not what it's about. It's all about the defaults. Have you noticed how the Apache news, the BSD news only rarely makes it to the front page? What I'm saying is that both of these topics are more geeky than Apple, which is just a company producing consumer hardware and software, and Adobe which seems not to have any interests in the geek community whatsoever.
This kind off news should be restricted to the OS X pages by default. Sure, I have no vendetta against proprietary systems and software, but it looks rather silly when Slashdot, most famous for its popularity in the Linux community, posts on its front page an article that has no bearing on its target audience -- programmers, Linux users, geeks.
This is some photo editing software for an OS designed for the computer-illiterate. Just think about it: What would the response be if an article about Microsoft Photo Editor being released for Microsoft Windows XP made it to the front page? Double standards and hypocracy, I say!
Proprietary software gets released for the Apple Macintosh. When there are amazing Free Software projects around the world that are dying for a little publicity, why is news of a proprietary piece of software released by Adobe, a company that has shown contempt for peoples' rights, for Apple Macintoshes, another proprietary system that isn't even targeted at geeks, supposed to interest me?
Fallacy 10: Open Source is the Answer
- Economic model is doubtful
- Source code is useless
- Motivation for Open Source is inappropriate for most software
- Nerd culture is counter-productive
We write software for peer recognition. We write fancy structures because
'it's cool', but not particularly useful.
If this were a Microsoft developer conference, would you expect a keynote speaker to stand up in front of thousands of Microsoft employees and users and claim that Microsoft is a monopoly, produces insecure and unusable software and only cares about money, not its users? One would expect a security team (think 2-metres tall and muscular, not securityfocus) up on that podium to carry the infiltrant off stage pretty quickly. More likely, it just wouldn't happen. I'm certain Microsoft puts millions just into screening the opinions that are expressed during its conferences, written on its website or posted on Usenet by its employees.
I think the Linux community's willingness to listen to criticism before (perhaps sometimes vehemently) counterarguing is one of its greatest strengths.
I don't agree with what Michi says towards the end of his keynote, but I doubt the organisers of GUADEC will cause too much of a fuss about it (perhaps they will ask him once or twice if he _really_ thinks Open Source is no good for production software).
It's somewhat sad that Linux, which has often been referred to as the pearl of Free Software, will now be developed using non-free software.
One of the immediate consequences I can see from this move is that Debian users will no longer be able to participate in active (ie. more than just sending in patches) kernel development, as Debian policy states that Debian can only include Free Software. Of course, they can install the proprietary BitKeeper from an unoffical non-free apt source, but I doubt most Debian users will be willing to do this. Judging by what I've seen, several leading kernel developers, notably Ben Collins, are Debian users. A resolution must be found to this problem, even if it involves one of the bigger companies purchasing BitMover just to set the code free. In the long term, judging by the fervent vigilance of the Free Software community, I could forsee that this could be a very nice excuse for a fork of the Linux kernel which will be developed using Free Software only, such as CVS.
Of course, there's also the "laughing stock" factor. Whilst it may not be so bad for the Linux community, the Free Software community (if they can be set apart) will have less to be proud about when it comes to the kernel.
For sure, this has made kernel development somewhat less accessible to a large group of Linux users. I've always believed that revision control could help Linus, but surely the Free Software community has something at least as good as, if not better than the propretary offerings? Otherwise, we're no better off than using Microsoft SourceSafe.
Slashdotters should know better than most the difference between free beer and free speech.
Yesterday, I was sitting at a Microsoft Windows workstation researching something on physics, when I came accross a Webpage with an embedded Java applet. I was dumbstruck; what a fabulous idea! From what I can gather, Java applets are quite prevalent in education circles and other applications where user input can be taken to produce a visual representation of the result.
.NET and C# are basically a reimplementation of Java. Sure, they add new features like cross-language support, and finer grained security context. These mean respectively that I could call a perl function from a python script inline. The latter means I could create software that has extensible input and output filters for program data, where the filters are trusted to convert data but never write it to disk.
So, why then do I think.NET is the best thing for GNOME? It's really very simple: The Java runtime environment is non-free. Certainly, Free Software Java interpreters like Kaffee came a long way when they were actively under development, but what was really missing was a complete set of class libraries.
Ximian Mono is writing a complete cross platform development and code exceution platform which includes a complete set of class libraries, and a JIT (Just in Time) interpeter for.NET bytecode that allows the code, once compiled, to be run at almost native speeds.
Finally,.NET is an open standard; Java is not. It's been submitted to the ECMA which means that you, I and Miguel are free to make an open implementation of it, explicitly. Sure, some may worry that Microsoft have subversive motives in doing so, but the fact remains that they've released a technology that's at least as good as, if not better than Java.
I don't know about you, but I want to see the day when I'm doing research and I hit a page with an interactive demonstration written in.NET and I can view it in Mozilla, or in Konqueror, without having to install Sun or IBM's proprietary Java runtime. It's all about the technology, only in this case it makes sense not only to pragmatists but Free Software enthusiasts too. In fact I bet that most of the anti-Mono trolls are the very ones that have those proprietary Java runtimes installed on their systems.
This security 'hole' has been exploited since the middle of last year by the Free Software giFT project.
Although the project's primary goal is to provide a Free alternative to the FastTrack network, giFT includes a tool that scans arbitrary IP address ranges on port 1214 and indexes the results, offering the discovered files through either an http or Gtk+ interface. It's a waste of bandwidth, but some would argue that it gets the work done.
I hope people support giFT in creating a secure, Free Sofware alternative to FastTrack. All these stories of spyware and root holes (even if unsubstantiated) are quite disturbing.
I've noticed they've placed a W3C XHTML 1.0 logo at the bottom of their index page. This is a mark that shows the designer has conformed to Web standards and provided a basic level of accessibility for disabled users. It typically links to the W3C page validator. They probably put it there to show that GNU supports open standards, but the page is in fact nothing like well formed XHTML, and contains numerous basic HTML errors that could make the page inaccessible to page-readers for the blind, for example.
I'm not saying everyone who puts up a webpage should have to write perfect HTML, but why do they feel the need to put the logo of compliance there if it's just a lie? I know GNU supports open standards by principle, but they should do more than just pay lip-service. Either take the logo off the page, or fix the HTML!
terminatorX is a realtime audio synthesizer that allows you to "scratch" on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.mp3, etc.) the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features multiple turntables, realtime effects (buit-in as well as LADSPA plugin effects), a sequencer and an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI.
There's a tutorial which explains how to take advantage of the support for a second mouse attached to the serial port which can be plugged into a dead turntable and controls the software, allowing users to make scratches with a real turntable for that hiphop look'n'feel. Check it out, it's a great project.
The real problem is not lack of bandwidth. There's plenty of it to go around. What saddens me is that the ISC is throwing away most of $80,000 annually because people can't be bothered to patch their kernel, and instead rely on downloading the full 20MB tarball every time a new kernel is released.
The solution to the problem is really quite simple. As Larry McVoy, who maintains the powerful but non-free BitKeeper RCS system and knows a thing or two about patches, has hinted towards kernel.org may be better off not providing a tarball for each release, instead providing some kind of utility that downloads the latest available full kernel, but only if necessary, plus patches. I'd be all for it. In the meantime, there are a number of incremental patching systems for the Linux kernel that automatically download patches, verify their signatures and patch the kernel which may be worth looking into to save time, bandwidth and resources:
Of course, it goes without saying that everyone should still use their local mirror, particularly as kernel.org will only be accessible to mirrors for the forseeable future.
Releasing software to the "public domain" is dangerous and stupid.
IANAL, but public domain software has several legal issues that open the originator of the code to legal liability. It may prove prudent to request that they license their code under the BSD or GPL licenses, which limit liability.
Although I can't go into details (still under NDA after 6 years technically), we got bitten by this at a large software house not so long ago. Basically, some of our examples in the documentation were marked as "public domain" software and a third party began to redistribute the examples in binary form with added graphical interfaces. It turned out of the developers of this GUI had written his code on another company's time, and that company decided to sue us. Since there was no limitation of liability in our distributed source code, our lawyers had a harder time justifying our position.
Don't underestimate the bit of a license that goes something like this:
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.
Asking Infogrames to "public domain" their source code is, in my opinion, uninformed and irresponsible.
Using "ClearType" with XFree86, GNOME, KDE
on
Looking Ahead at GNOME 2
·
· Score: 5, Informative
While they are working on basic AntiAliasing, you should try out ClearType [microsoft.com]. It improves font quality up to 800% on LCD screens. The antialiasing level is also adjustable... One caveat: you need WinXP [microsoft.com] to run it...
Rubbish. XFree86 has supported what Microsoft calls "ClearType" for over a year.
The method, called sub-pixel rendering, is designed to work with LCD panels. This is why Microsoft are pushing for its use on laptops and palmtop devices. On standard CRTs, it holds no advantage over standard greyscale anti-aliasing.
A single pixel of an LCD screen is actually composed of three "sub-pixels": one red, one green, and one blue (R-G-B). Taken together this sub-pixel triplet makes up what we've traditionally thought of as a single pixel. This means that an LCD screen boasting a horizontal resolution of 800 whole pixels is actually composed of 800 red, 800 green, and 800 blue sub-pixels interleaved together (R-G-B-R-G-B-R-G-B...) to form a linear array of 2400 single-color sub-pixels. That's where I guess you got your 800% from.
"ClearType" can be enabled in XFree86 versions 4.01 and greater by modifying/etc/X11/XftConfig. Just append the following line:
match edit rgba = rgb;
An in-depth look into sub-pixel rendering support in XFree86 is available here.
For those Free Software enthusiasts of you out there who don't want to install RealPlayer, the BBC is triallingOgg Vorbis live audio streams. The BBC Radio 4 stream can be found here. If you use this service, please take the time to tell them that you appreciate their support of open standards as the service is still tentative.
I'm sorry if this seems blatantly obvious to some, but what is "Thanksgiving"? I gather it's a (religious?) meeting of some kind from google but not much else. Don't remember seeing it mentioned on/. before so perhaps a link is in order. Cheers!
Re:Objprelink?
on
KDE 2.2.2
·
· Score: 1, Offtopic
No, actually you were not wrong; the AC was. According to the OED, the verb "to trade" has equally used interchangeable meanings of "to sell" or "to buy" in this context, and the preposition "for" also has no specific connotations of recievership or otherwise. Thus the phrase "it trades speed for stability" is in fact utterly ambiguous, but also not wrong. Take peoples' advice regarding grammar, but always make sure that you come to your own conclusions before apologising for nothing.
Meanwhile, I will return to uploading my KDE 2.2.2 packages into Debian unstable. It should be apt-gettable within a couple of hours, as the KDE folks were good enough to allow time for packaging before announcing the release. We're not to be upstaged by these RedHat packages:-)
You say RMS shoud accept "that [commercial products] do have a place."
First of all, commercial products and proprietary products are not the same thing. GNU has a clear set diagram that categorises software and makes this clear. RMS has always accepted that commercial products have a place -- he is not a communist. However he believes that these commercial products should embrace the same development methods and openness that the Free Software community does. He has no qualms with CyGNUs Software for example, since all of its work is released under the GNU GPL.
With this in mind, try to name one single case where proprietary software is valid or acceptable. Now you will begin to see what RMS is getting at. Even if you don't, you shouldn't be misrepresenting his ideas like this.
The article was referring to MIDI used in the context of an intermediary protocol between music hardware and sequencing software. It's the only open and documented interface for musical information interchange between devices and so should be promoted by the community, before the proprietary formats manage to get a foothold. I sympathise with what you say about MIDI songs being played on computers, but you should recognise that that's not what MIDI is all about.
Why doesn't the patent office implement a system whereby patent holders who are found to be abusing the system are denied the right to file any further patents for a specified period (say, 5 years) or lose the rights to other more valuable patents that they own? I think that'd make corporations like IBM which are looking to make a buck off trivial patents think twice about what they're doing. This software patent madness has to stop before it spreads to Europe.
5 substantial reasons why GNOME is obsolete
on
No GNOME For Solaris 9
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Technology: GNOME is based on the GTK+ library, which was fine for its day, but is now decidedly outdated. The basic design, themability and functionality simply haven't changed in years. It doesn't offer exciting components like KParts, KDE's analog to COM. The closes thing to that will be Bonobo, but its development is far behind even GNOME 2's release schedule and won't make it in until at least 2003.
Browsers: The GNOME project depends on Mozilla for its browser component. While Galeon makes the experience quite pleasant, page loads are still slow. In contrast, Konqueror is under heavy development, supporting both Mozilla and KHTML as its viewer component, the latter of which is its greatest strength. The W3C recommends Konqueror for having the most complete CSS2 implementation in the world.
Lack of modern features: XFree86 in itself is not that fast in implementing modern OS facilities. But when the XFree86 team did finally implement XRender (some 10 years after amigaOS could do antialiasing), they did it right. Trolltech team, thanks to the component based design of Qt, were able to implement text antialiasing and alpha channels with just a couple of screens of code. The same implmenentation for GTK+/GNOME, in contrast, is only possible as either a hack (render text large and sale it down) or potentially by major redesign, which will be done with GTK+ 2.
Looks. Although KDE had formerly been the ugly duckling, it really has leapt ahead of GNOME. One need look no further than http://www.kde-look.org/ to see how powerful and customisable KStyle is. As a developer once said, GNOME has themes, but KDE has style! What he meant in fact is that GNOME themes are generally pixmap designs, and when they are done programatically, there is limited scope for customisation.
A previous post aptly pointed out that GNU always wants to re-invent the wheel. Linux is fine, but they still want to work on HURD, because Linux isn't made by GNU. KDE is fine, but they still want to work on Gnome, because KDE isn't made by GNU.
The GNOME Project's great gift to the world has been to spur development of the older, more established rival KDE and more importantly, to prompt Trolltech into making the Qt libraries that underpin KDE free software.
Sadly, GNOME is falling behind technically. I've seen the GNOME 2 APIs: it's a sorry mess of compiler pre-processor macros trying to achieve what KDE does with its use of C++. Claims that g++ is no good are no longer founded, it is now up to the standard of, and in many cases exceeds, the capabilities of its commercial counterparts.
Furthermore, we can _see_ KDE being actively developed. There are regular releases, security patches -- the correct frame of mind for an Open Source project: release early, release often. On the other hand, GNOME seems to be being developed almost behind closed doors. It's true more with Open Source than other models that if you can't see something being developed, it generally isn't. We know for example, that Ximian has diverted its resources to Mono and.NET, a plaudible effort, but sadly not directly related to the Linux desktop as it stands today.
Perhaps GNOME has reached the end of its natural life and should be put down to make way for a unified *NIX desktop?
See El Reg's excellent article for a better explanation:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22025.htm l
AirLace, Free Software enthusiast, once devoted GNOME fanatic, WindowMaker user and hopeful future user of KDE.
steganography \Steg`a*nog"ra*phy\, n. [Gr. ? covered (fr. ? to cover closely) + -graphy.] The art of writing in cipher, or in characters which are not intelligible except to persons who have the key; cryptography.
I don't think even RMS would be that extreme. Rather, what he is saying is that you should 'vote with your feet' and ensure that the next (currently unelected) president who you vote for is fully aware of the issues regarding freedom vs. terrorism.
Slashdot Mirror
Surely if they combined efforts with the Vorbis people to improve their codec for low-bandwidth streams, the two development teams could produce a single codec that's better positioned to push aside the more popular codecs like Microsoft's ASF? Seems like a terrible waste of effort to write this from scratch.
Btw. I tried the demo but it's only available in (Microsoft Windows?) binary executable format with no source available.
Just checked. The patch is NOT applied in the tarball. Damn.
I've had some experience with Wipro in the past. It's a software sweatshop based in India. I guess that's how Sun can affort to devote 50 whole programmers to GNOME. Does the GNOME community really want to be associated with this kind of establishment?
Sure, I could configure it myself. Hell, I could download Slashcode, set it up to use the RSS provided by Slashdot and then tweak the Perl code to my heart's content.
That's not what it's about. It's all about the defaults. Have you noticed how the Apache news, the BSD news only rarely makes it to the front page? What I'm saying is that both of these topics are more geeky than Apple, which is just a company producing consumer hardware and software, and Adobe which seems not to have any interests in the geek community whatsoever.
This kind off news should be restricted to the OS X pages by default. Sure, I have no vendetta against proprietary systems and software, but it looks rather silly when Slashdot, most famous for its popularity in the Linux community, posts on its front page an article that has no bearing on its target audience -- programmers, Linux users, geeks.
This is some photo editing software for an OS designed for the computer-illiterate. Just think about it: What would the response be if an article about Microsoft Photo Editor being released for Microsoft Windows XP made it to the front page? Double standards and hypocracy, I say!
Proprietary software gets released for the Apple Macintosh. When there are amazing Free Software projects around the world that are dying for a little publicity, why is news of a proprietary piece of software released by Adobe, a company that has shown contempt for peoples' rights, for Apple Macintoshes, another proprietary system that isn't even targeted at geeks, supposed to interest me?
Fallacy 10: Open Source is the Answer
- Economic model is doubtful
- Source code is useless
- Motivation for Open Source is inappropriate for most software
- Nerd culture is counter-productive
We write software for peer recognition. We write fancy structures because
'it's cool', but not particularly useful.
If this were a Microsoft developer conference, would you expect a keynote speaker to stand up in front of thousands of Microsoft employees and users and claim that Microsoft is a monopoly, produces insecure and unusable software and only cares about money, not its users? One would expect a security team (think 2-metres tall and muscular, not securityfocus) up on that podium to carry the infiltrant off stage pretty quickly. More likely, it just wouldn't happen. I'm certain Microsoft puts millions just into screening the opinions that are expressed during its conferences, written on its website or posted on Usenet by its employees.
I think the Linux community's willingness to listen to criticism before (perhaps sometimes vehemently) counterarguing is one of its greatest strengths.
I don't agree with what Michi says towards the end of his keynote, but I doubt the organisers of GUADEC will cause too much of a fuss about it (perhaps they will ask him once or twice if he _really_ thinks Open Source is no good for production software).
It's somewhat sad that Linux, which has often been referred to as the pearl of Free Software, will now be developed using non-free software.
One of the immediate consequences I can see from this move is that Debian users will no longer be able to participate in active (ie. more than just sending in patches) kernel development, as Debian policy states that Debian can only include Free Software. Of course, they can install the proprietary BitKeeper from an unoffical non-free apt source, but I doubt most Debian users will be willing to do this. Judging by what I've seen, several leading kernel developers, notably Ben Collins, are Debian users. A resolution must be found to this problem, even if it involves one of the bigger companies purchasing BitMover just to set the code free. In the long term, judging by the fervent vigilance of the Free Software community, I could forsee that this could be a very nice excuse for a fork of the Linux kernel which will be developed using Free Software only, such as CVS.
Of course, there's also the "laughing stock" factor. Whilst it may not be so bad for the Linux community, the Free Software community (if they can be set apart) will have less to be proud about when it comes to the kernel.
For sure, this has made kernel development somewhat less accessible to a large group of Linux users. I've always believed that revision control could help Linus, but surely the Free Software community has something at least as good as, if not better than the propretary offerings? Otherwise, we're no better off than using Microsoft SourceSafe.
Slashdotters should know better than most the difference between free beer and free speech.
Yesterday, I was sitting at a Microsoft Windows workstation researching something on physics, when I came accross a Webpage with an embedded Java applet. I was dumbstruck; what a fabulous idea! From what I can gather, Java applets are quite prevalent in education circles and other applications where user input can be taken to produce a visual representation of the result. .NET is the best thing for GNOME? It's really very simple: The Java runtime environment is non-free. Certainly, Free Software Java interpreters like Kaffee came a long way when they were actively under development, but what was really missing was a complete set of class libraries.
.NET bytecode that allows the code, once compiled, to be run at almost native speeds.
.NET is an open standard; Java is not. It's been submitted to the ECMA which means that you, I and Miguel are free to make an open implementation of it, explicitly. Sure, some may worry that Microsoft have subversive motives in doing so, but the fact remains that they've released a technology that's at least as good as, if not better than Java.
.NET and I can view it in Mozilla, or in Konqueror, without having to install Sun or IBM's proprietary Java runtime. It's all about the technology, only in this case it makes sense not only to pragmatists but Free Software enthusiasts too. In fact I bet that most of the anti-Mono trolls are the very ones that have those proprietary Java runtimes installed on their systems.
.NET and C# are basically a reimplementation of Java. Sure, they add new features like cross-language support, and finer grained security context. These mean respectively that I could call a perl function from a python script inline. The latter means I could create software that has extensible input and output filters for program data, where the filters are trusted to convert data but never write it to disk.
So, why then do I think
Ximian Mono is writing a complete cross platform development and code exceution platform which includes a complete set of class libraries, and a JIT (Just in Time) interpeter for
Finally,
I don't know about you, but I want to see the day when I'm doing research and I hit a page with an interactive demonstration written in
This security 'hole' has been exploited since the middle of last year by the Free Software giFT project.
Although the project's primary goal is to provide a Free alternative to the FastTrack network, giFT includes a tool that scans arbitrary IP address ranges on port 1214 and indexes the results, offering the discovered files through either an http or Gtk+ interface. It's a waste of bandwidth, but some would argue that it gets the work done.
I hope people support giFT in creating a secure, Free Sofware alternative to FastTrack. All these stories of spyware and root holes (even if unsubstantiated) are quite disturbing.
I'm not saying everyone who puts up a webpage should have to write perfect HTML, but why do they feel the need to put the logo of compliance there if it's just a lie? I know GNU supports open standards by principle, but they should do more than just pay lip-service. Either take the logo off the page, or fix the HTML!
terminatorX can do this kind of thing:
terminatorX is a realtime audio synthesizer that allows you to "scratch" on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.mp3, etc.) the way hiphop-DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features multiple turntables, realtime effects (buit-in as well as LADSPA plugin effects), a sequencer and an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI.
There's a tutorial which explains how to take advantage of the support for a second mouse attached to the serial port which can be plugged into a dead turntable and controls the software, allowing users to make scratches with a real turntable for that hiphop look'n'feel. Check it out, it's a great project.
The solution to the problem is really quite simple. As Larry McVoy, who maintains the powerful but non-free BitKeeper RCS system and knows a thing or two about patches, has hinted towards kernel.org may be better off not providing a tarball for each release, instead providing some kind of utility that downloads the latest available full kernel, but only if necessary, plus patches. I'd be all for it. In the meantime, there are a number of incremental patching systems for the Linux kernel that automatically download patches, verify their signatures and patch the kernel which may be worth looking into to save time, bandwidth and resources:
Of course, it goes without saying that everyone should still use their local mirror, particularly as kernel.org will only be accessible to mirrors for the forseeable future.
IANAL, but public domain software has several legal issues that open the originator of the code to legal liability. It may prove prudent to request that they license their code under the BSD or GPL licenses, which limit liability.
Although I can't go into details (still under NDA after 6 years technically), we got bitten by this at a large software house not so long ago. Basically, some of our examples in the documentation were marked as "public domain" software and a third party began to redistribute the examples in binary form with added graphical interfaces. It turned out of the developers of this GUI had written his code on another company's time, and that company decided to sue us. Since there was no limitation of liability in our distributed source code, our lawyers had a harder time justifying our position.
Don't underestimate the bit of a license that goes something like this:
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.
Asking Infogrames to "public domain" their source code is, in my opinion, uninformed and irresponsible.
Rubbish. XFree86 has supported what Microsoft calls "ClearType" for over a year.
The method, called sub-pixel rendering, is designed to work with LCD panels. This is why Microsoft are pushing for its use on laptops and palmtop devices. On standard CRTs, it holds no advantage over standard greyscale anti-aliasing.
A single pixel of an LCD screen is actually composed of three "sub-pixels": one red, one green, and one blue (R-G-B). Taken together this sub-pixel triplet makes up what we've traditionally thought of as a single pixel. This means that an LCD screen boasting a horizontal resolution of 800 whole pixels is actually composed of 800 red, 800 green, and 800 blue sub-pixels interleaved together (R-G-B-R-G-B-R-G-B
"ClearType" can be enabled in XFree86 versions 4.01 and greater by modifying
match edit rgba = rgb;
An in-depth look into sub-pixel rendering support in XFree86 is available here.
For those Free Software enthusiasts of you out there who don't want to install RealPlayer, the BBC is trialling Ogg Vorbis live audio streams. The BBC Radio 4 stream can be found here.
If you use this service, please take the time to tell them that you appreciate their support of open standards as the service is still tentative.
I'm sorry if this seems blatantly obvious to some, but what is "Thanksgiving"? I gather it's a (religious?) meeting of some kind from google but not much else. Don't remember seeing it mentioned on /. before so perhaps a link is in order. Cheers!
Meanwhile, I will return to uploading my KDE 2.2.2 packages into Debian unstable. It should be apt-gettable within a couple of hours, as the KDE folks were good enough to allow time for packaging before announcing the release. We're not to be upstaged by these RedHat packages
First of all, commercial products and proprietary products are not the same thing. GNU has a clear set diagram that categorises software and makes this clear. RMS has always accepted that commercial products have a place -- he is not a communist. However he believes that these commercial products should embrace the same development methods and openness that the Free Software community does. He has no qualms with CyGNUs Software for example, since all of its work is released under the GNU GPL.
With this in mind, try to name one single case where proprietary software is valid or acceptable. Now you will begin to see what RMS is getting at. Even if you don't, you shouldn't be misrepresenting his ideas like this.
The article was referring to MIDI used in the context of an intermediary protocol between music hardware and sequencing software. It's the only open and documented interface for musical information interchange between devices and so should be promoted by the community, before the proprietary formats manage to get a foothold. I sympathise with what you say about MIDI songs being played on computers, but you should recognise that that's not what MIDI is all about.
Why doesn't the patent office implement a system whereby patent holders who are found to be abusing the system are denied the right to file any further patents for a specified period (say, 5 years) or lose the rights to other more valuable patents that they own? I think that'd make corporations like IBM which are looking to make a buck off trivial patents think twice about what they're doing. This software patent madness has to stop before it spreads to Europe.
The GNOME Project's great gift to the world has been to spur development of the older, more established rival KDE and more importantly, to prompt Trolltech into making the Qt libraries that underpin KDE free software.
.NET, a plaudible effort, but sadly not directly related to the Linux desktop as it stands today.
m l
Sadly, GNOME is falling behind technically. I've seen the GNOME 2 APIs: it's a sorry mess of compiler pre-processor macros trying to achieve what KDE does with its use of C++. Claims that g++ is no good are no longer founded, it is now up to the standard of, and in many cases exceeds, the capabilities of its commercial counterparts.
Furthermore, we can _see_ KDE being actively developed. There are regular releases, security patches -- the correct frame of mind for an Open Source project: release early, release often. On the other hand, GNOME seems to be being developed almost behind closed doors. It's true more with Open Source than other models that if you can't see something being developed, it generally isn't. We know for example, that Ximian has diverted its resources to Mono and
Perhaps GNOME has reached the end of its natural life and should be put down to make way for a unified *NIX desktop?
See El Reg's excellent article for a better explanation:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22025.ht
AirLace, Free Software enthusiast, once devoted GNOME fanatic, WindowMaker user and hopeful future user of KDE.
steganography \Steg`a*nog"ra*phy\, n. [Gr. ? covered (fr. ? to cover closely) + -graphy.] The art of writing in cipher, or in characters which are not intelligible except to persons who have the key; cryptography.
Whoops!
I don't think even RMS would be that extreme. Rather, what he is saying is that you should 'vote with your feet' and ensure that the next (currently unelected) president who you vote for is fully aware of the issues regarding freedom vs. terrorism.
will Linux driver developers reverse engineer if there are no Microsoft Windows USB2.0 drivers?