For phones, it seems that the OS is part of the device, especially in case of iPhones (what else are you going to run on them) Keep in mind that iOS isn't sold separately either.
So all this does is punish the software developers that don't lock their software into hardware they sell. So if Microsoft stops selling Windows and force everyone to buy Surface laptops and PCs then they should be good.
I atleast hope they use the money for something really good, like desktop Linux, instead of chasing mobile with Firefox OS.
With Google clamping down with Chrome, promoting on Google and Youtube and paying to bundle it everywhere like with Java, Flash and Acrobat updates, I am surprised Firefox hasn't lost even more marketshare, but I do think the clock is ticking.
If the repackaging just involved slapping a skin and a couple extensions onto it but no code modification, I don't see why it would be a problem. Didn't IceWeasel involve recompiling or something?
What if one of the extensions sends all browsing activity and form submission data to another server? Why would Firefox want to be associated with that?
You are aware that there is nothing either illegal, or contrary to the GPL, in repackaging a browser, right? Its expressly in the GPL that you can do so.
And since it isnt illegal, on what grounds would google tamper with the search results? I thought we got up in arms when they do that at the request of celebs and whatnot. Or is it just because this is YOUR google search pet peeve, so its ok to mess with the results?
1) This is about the ads, not the organic search results. 2) GPL allows you to repackage software, but not under the same trademark. You can do whatever with the code, but cannot distribute it as Firefox if it's not coming from Mozilla. E.g. Debian had to rename their Firefox branch as IceWeasel 3) Google does not need any grounds to tamper with even organic search results.
The exemptions were given because some Word macros and sophisticated Excel files could not be reproduced in LibreOffice or other open source productivity suites. These are examples of what Serp calls “some less mature features” in free software: “When it comes to making some kinds of presentations, for example, there is often a little extra to do [compared to the same process in PowerPoint]. So for some people the process is not so clear, and this can cause adaptability problems in everyday work.”
How about they use some of the saved money to either donate or contribute code to make the software work better?
Instead we have companies and other organizations making and saving tens of billions of dollars off Open Source(like Google, Yahoo, Red Hat, Facebook, Twitter, Apple etc.) and then we end up with catastrophic security nightmares like HeartBleed because no one could be bothered to send a couple of bucks over to the overburdened couple of folks that everyone relies on for security. And then we have asshats on message boards like this one who likely never contributed to OpenSSL or looked at the code for bugs but feel entitled to call the coders stupid for the bugs after the fact.
I don't see how that's true. On a Chromebook there's only a browser and Google apps, while Apple allows native apps from the App Store to run on an iPad.
You'll have to dev unlock and install a new OS in order to get native apps running on Chromebooks, so I fail to see how Google doesn't limit you.
On any PC I can set Linux to be the default boot. On Chromebooks you have to type through an annoying prompt every single time you boot a kernel that's not signed by Google and the message says that OS verification is off, implying that using your own Linux install is less secure. Even the much hated UEFI Secure Boot doesn't do this.
They used to track apps for education users, lied that they didn't track, got caught in federal court where they didn't have the cajones to tell the same lies to the judge that they were telling the public and only recently now say that they stopped.
It isn't exactly trivial, you have to essentially unlock it and then click through an annoying prompt on every single boot. Even a PC with Secure Boot has better support for Linux than that.
>but for general purpose devices, Chromebooks can be great, especially when they are being compared to an iPad
How are they better than an iPad with a proper hardware keyboard? And it's a bastardization of the term 'general purpose' when it's locked down to run only Google's native's app and everything has to be done in the browser.
Google's basically giving them away for free or extremely subsidized and then tries to make money from them by snooping on the kids' email, while Apple actually tries to make a profit from them.
The plaintiffs allege that Google has employed such practices since around 2010, when it began using a new technology, known as Content Onebox, that allows the company to intercept and scan emails before they reach their intended recipients, rather than after messages are delivered to users’ inboxes, regardless of whether ads are turned off. Mr. Fread and Mr. Carrillo say that neither they nor any other users of Google Apps for Education consented to such practices. They are seeking financial damages amounting to $100 per day of each day of violation for every individual who sent or received an email message using Google Apps for Education during a two-year period beginning in May 2011. While the allegations by the plaintiffs are explosive, it’s the sworn declarations of Google representatives in response to their claims that have truly raised the eyebrows of observers and privacy experts. Contrary to the company’s earlier public statements, Google representatives acknowledged in a September motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ request for class certification that the company’s consumer-privacy policy applies to Apps for Education users. Thus, Google argues, it has students’ (and other Apps for Education users’) consent to scan and process their emails. In November, Kyle C. Wong, a lawyer representing Google, also argued in a formal declaration submitted to the court in opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification that the company’s data-mining practices are widely known, and that the plaintiffs’ complaints that the scanning and processing of their emails was done secretly are thus invalid. Mr. Wong cited extensive media coverage about Google’s data mining of Gmail consumer users’ messages, as well as the disclosures made by numerous universities to their students about how Google Apps for Education functions.
Long and hallowed history of computing? Oh please, give me a break. It only has a place in the useless hot air of a couple of message boards haunted by people in their parents' basement who don't matter.
People of substance who actually make things don't bother with such nonsense, while message board fanatics like you just hate on people like Miguel de Icaza who actually did more for FOSS than all the lame haters like you on Slashdot.
And you suffer from that affliction. If half the effort in posting and modding up MS hate was actually used in looking at FOSS code, maybe things like Heartbleed wouldn't happen. Well, I wouldn't count on that, because it's usually people who lack the real technical chops who write the logicless nonsense, and they're intellectually lacking and cannot contribute anything substantive.
Not really, lame MS bashers like the one that ruined the site with stupid hateful comments full of logic holes and partisan moderation and turned it into a ghost town worth nothing by turning away people with half a brain cell. Reading 'lol M$ sux' over and over again becomes extremely boring. Even obvious flamebait posts like this are attracting less and less comments. It's dead and thanks for killing it.
Want a gem of the lame Slashdot campaign to bash MS? Read this and the comments.
Perhaps Slashdot needs some new blood so they stop posting the same MS bashing stupid troll posts in order to milk pageviews. It's a major turn off on this site.
They even do the same thing on iOS if you use Gmail, Chrome or Google Now apps.
It is easiest for Google to conduct this passive location tracking on Android users, since Google has embedded location tracking into the software. Once Android users opt in to location services, Google starts collecting their location data as continuously as technologically possible. (Its ability to do so is dependent on cell tower or Wi-Fi signal strength.)
Android is currently the leading mobile OS in the U.S. with a 45.9 percent market share in 2013, according to eMarketer. A little more than a fifth (20.3 percent) of the U.S. population uses Android smartphones.
But Google can also constantly track the location of iPhone users by way of Google apps for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. IOS is just behind Android in U.S. market share with 38.3 percent of users, per eMarketer. Nearly 17 percent of the American populace uses an iOS smartphone.
When an iPhone user stops using an app, it continues running “in the background.” The user might not realize it, but the app continues working, much in the same way tabs function on a Web browser.
Google’s namesake iOS app — commonly referred to as Google mobile search — continues collecting a user’s location information when it runs in the background. This information is then used to determine if that user visited a store and whether that store visit can be attributed to a search conducted in the app. Store visits can also be tracked via Google’s other iOS apps that use location services. If iOS users open their Chrome, Gmail or Google Maps app in a store, their location can be deemed a store visit.
And they recently stopped snooping on the free Google Apps and email for Schools and even businesses after doing it for a long time to build ad profiles after they didn't dare telling the same lies in federal court that they were telling to the public about snooping on students to show ads.
Slashdot Mirror
For phones, it seems that the OS is part of the device, especially in case of iPhones (what else are you going to run on them) Keep in mind that iOS isn't sold separately either.
So all this does is punish the software developers that don't lock their software into hardware they sell. So if Microsoft stops selling Windows and force everyone to buy Surface laptops and PCs then they should be good.
Since computing is moving to tablets and phones, can we get OS refunds for iDevices and Android tablets and phones also ?
Also, is this applicable to Macs?
Wrong, there is a compatibility pack that can be installed. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us...
It all reads like an ad for Kolab.
I said Windows Server, not Windows. It's based on Windows NT.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W...
What's wrong with services.msc on a Windows Server machine? Any serious answers from people who actually used it?
Their offices sure look grand.
http://mettedesigns.com/galler...
http://blog.mozilla.org/places...
More excess http://ngokevin.com/blog/mozil...
I atleast hope they use the money for something really good, like desktop Linux, instead of chasing mobile with Firefox OS.
With Google clamping down with Chrome, promoting on Google and Youtube and paying to bundle it everywhere like with Java, Flash and Acrobat updates, I am surprised Firefox hasn't lost even more marketshare, but I do think the clock is ticking.
If the repackaging just involved slapping a skin and a couple extensions onto it but no code modification, I don't see why it would be a problem. Didn't IceWeasel involve recompiling or something?
What if one of the extensions sends all browsing activity and form submission data to another server?
Why would Firefox want to be associated with that?
You are aware that there is nothing either illegal, or contrary to the GPL, in repackaging a browser, right? Its expressly in the GPL that you can do so.
And since it isnt illegal, on what grounds would google tamper with the search results? I thought we got up in arms when they do that at the request of celebs and whatnot. Or is it just because this is YOUR google search pet peeve, so its ok to mess with the results?
1) This is about the ads, not the organic search results.
2) GPL allows you to repackage software, but not under the same trademark. You can do whatever with the code, but cannot distribute it as Firefox if it's not coming from Mozilla. E.g. Debian had to rename their Firefox branch as IceWeasel
3) Google does not need any grounds to tamper with even organic search results.
Google needs to clean up misleading apps in their search and stop malware instead of profiting from it.
Look at the ads for Firefox.
http://i.imgur.com/piER06h.png
It's the same for other apps, like Skype etc.
Experts: Ebola Vaccine At Least 50 White People Away
http://www.theonion.com/articl...
The exemptions were given because some Word macros and sophisticated Excel files could not be reproduced in LibreOffice or other open source productivity suites. These are examples of what Serp calls “some less mature features” in free software: “When it comes to making some kinds of presentations, for example, there is often a little extra to do [compared to the same process in PowerPoint]. So for some people the process is not so clear, and this can cause adaptability problems in everyday work.”
How about they use some of the saved money to either donate or contribute code to make the software work better?
Instead we have companies and other organizations making and saving tens of billions of dollars off Open Source(like Google, Yahoo, Red Hat, Facebook, Twitter, Apple etc.) and then we end up with catastrophic security nightmares like HeartBleed because no one could be bothered to send a couple of bucks over to the overburdened couple of folks that everyone relies on for security. And then we have asshats on message boards like this one who likely never contributed to OpenSSL or looked at the code for bugs but feel entitled to call the coders stupid for the bugs after the fact.
I don't see how that's true. On a Chromebook there's only a browser and Google apps, while Apple allows native apps from the App Store to run on an iPad.
You'll have to dev unlock and install a new OS in order to get native apps running on Chromebooks, so I fail to see how Google doesn't limit you.
On any PC I can set Linux to be the default boot. On Chromebooks you have to type through an annoying prompt every single time you boot a kernel that's not signed by Google and the message says that OS verification is off, implying that using your own Linux install is less secure. Even the much hated UEFI Secure Boot doesn't do this.
They used to track apps for education users, lied that they didn't track, got caught in federal court where they didn't have the cajones to tell the same lies to the judge that they were telling the public and only recently now say that they stopped.
Read these articles:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek...
It isn't exactly trivial, you have to essentially unlock it and then click through an annoying prompt on every single boot. Even a PC with Secure Boot has better support for Linux than that.
>but for general purpose devices, Chromebooks can be great, especially when they are being compared to an iPad
How are they better than an iPad with a proper hardware keyboard? And it's a bastardization of the term 'general purpose' when it's locked down to run only Google's native's app and everything has to be done in the browser.
Google's basically giving them away for free or extremely subsidized and then tries to make money from them by snooping on the kids' email, while Apple actually tries to make a profit from them.
http://thenextweb.com/google/2...
From http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...
The plaintiffs allege that Google has employed such practices since around 2010, when it began using a new technology, known as Content Onebox, that allows the company to intercept and scan emails before they reach their intended recipients, rather than after messages are delivered to users’ inboxes, regardless of whether ads are turned off.
Mr. Fread and Mr. Carrillo say that neither they nor any other users of Google Apps for Education consented to such practices. They are seeking financial damages amounting to $100 per day of each day of violation for every individual who sent or received an email message using Google Apps for Education during a two-year period beginning in May 2011.
While the allegations by the plaintiffs are explosive, it’s the sworn declarations of Google representatives in response to their claims that have truly raised the eyebrows of observers and privacy experts.
Contrary to the company’s earlier public statements, Google representatives acknowledged in a September motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ request for class certification that the company’s consumer-privacy policy applies to Apps for Education users. Thus, Google argues, it has students’ (and other Apps for Education users’) consent to scan and process their emails.
In November, Kyle C. Wong, a lawyer representing Google, also argued in a formal declaration submitted to the court in opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification that the company’s data-mining practices are widely known, and that the plaintiffs’ complaints that the scanning and processing of their emails was done secretly are thus invalid. Mr. Wong cited extensive media coverage about Google’s data mining of Gmail consumer users’ messages, as well as the disclosures made by numerous universities to their students about how Google Apps for Education functions.
What the senator is really saying is that Ballmer shouldn't have been laid off and replaced by a foreign worker.
Go read, because you sound like an ignorant ass.
I came to that conclusion as soon as I read the $ sign, so I didn't miss much.
So you mean that justifies posting bullcrap like this?
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
Company slags competition. News at 11.
Netscape atleast could be installed on Windows, no proper alternative browsers even allowed on iOS. No wonder no one takes the haters seriously.
Long and hallowed history of computing? Oh please, give me a break. It only has a place in the useless hot air of a couple of message boards haunted by people in their parents' basement who don't matter.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/co...
People of substance who actually make things don't bother with such nonsense, while message board fanatics like you just hate on people like Miguel de Icaza who actually did more for FOSS than all the lame haters like you on Slashdot.
As usual, Linus says it best:
http://linux.slashdot.org/stor...
And you suffer from that affliction. If half the effort in posting and modding up MS hate was actually used in looking at FOSS code, maybe things like Heartbleed wouldn't happen. Well, I wouldn't count on that, because it's usually people who lack the real technical chops who write the logicless nonsense, and they're intellectually lacking and cannot contribute anything substantive.
Not really, lame MS bashers like the one that ruined the site with stupid hateful comments full of logic holes and partisan moderation and turned it into a ghost town worth nothing by turning away people with half a brain cell. Reading 'lol M$ sux' over and over again becomes extremely boring. Even obvious flamebait posts like this are attracting less and less comments. It's dead and thanks for killing it.
Want a gem of the lame Slashdot campaign to bash MS? Read this and the comments.
http://slashdot.org/story/09/0...
Perhaps Slashdot needs some new blood so they stop posting the same MS bashing stupid troll posts in order to milk pageviews. It's a major turn off on this site.
They actually track which stores you visit to monetize ads. If you opt out then a lot of things including Google Now stop working.
http://digiday.com/platforms/g...
They even do the same thing on iOS if you use Gmail, Chrome or Google Now apps.
It is easiest for Google to conduct this passive location tracking on Android users, since Google has embedded location tracking into the software. Once Android users opt in to location services, Google starts collecting their location data as continuously as technologically possible. (Its ability to do so is dependent on cell tower or Wi-Fi signal strength.)
Android is currently the leading mobile OS in the U.S. with a 45.9 percent market share in 2013, according to eMarketer. A little more than a fifth (20.3 percent) of the U.S. population uses Android smartphones.
But Google can also constantly track the location of iPhone users by way of Google apps for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. IOS is just behind Android in U.S. market share with 38.3 percent of users, per eMarketer. Nearly 17 percent of the American populace uses an iOS smartphone.
When an iPhone user stops using an app, it continues running “in the background.” The user might not realize it, but the app continues working, much in the same way tabs function on a Web browser.
Google’s namesake iOS app — commonly referred to as Google mobile search — continues collecting a user’s location information when it runs in the background. This information is then used to determine if that user visited a store and whether that store visit can be attributed to a search conducted in the app. Store visits can also be tracked via Google’s other iOS apps that use location services. If iOS users open their Chrome, Gmail or Google Maps app in a store, their location can be deemed a store visit.
And they recently stopped snooping on the free Google Apps and email for Schools and even businesses after doing it for a long time to build ad profiles after they didn't dare telling the same lies in federal court that they were telling to the public about snooping on students to show ads.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...
http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...
But hey, it's Google so they get a free pass here while if MS did anything even close to that people would be shouting from rooftops.