Tell your friends, relatives, colleagues, anyone - pass the word...
Linux grows mostly by word-of-mouth. So that next time you want to buy a laptop, there may be more opportunities - please encourage people to support:Linux companies now! Though I suspect that you are already doing so!
There are other companies that sell Linux preloaded, if you look for them.
I am in New Zealand, and we got Linux laptops for me and my youngest son (15) from https://zareason.co.nz./
I had a ten year old phone me up because he wanted to learn Java, his choice.
He is willing and able to concentrate on programming for hours at a time.
I will encourage him to learn several other languages as well - that way he will better distinguish between programming concepts and their implementation in a particular language.
I've coded in Assembler, FORTRAN, and COBOL in the past. I've even been paid to teach people C. I wrote my first BASIC program in 1968.
Now I use Java on Linux, with Postgres as our database of choice.
Looks like I'll get funding to double the number of programmers in my team from one to two people - we will be using a prerelease of of Java Enterprise 7.
For large complex projects Java is fine, even for very small teams.
Yes, when a large animal is dying, you can still be mortally wounded by their death spasms.
I'm more worried by Apple, but Apple has already lost the server wars, and seems to be starting to lose in the smart phone & tablet space. I think we are starting to see manufacturers & OEMs (those in the consumer electronics and phone segments) that are beholden to neither Apple nor Microsoft, start moving up the food chain - the current battleground is tablets, next is laptops...
Note all eBooks are based on Linux, and so are 'smart' TV's. There are probably people who boast that they are totally Microsoft, but don't realize that they already have Linux in devices they own, except that it is not widely known.
Essentially companies can innovate faster with Linux. Also, the cost of maintaining & enhancing Linux and associated software is shared by a very large group of companies (some very large like IBM) - so the real cost of using Linux for a company is less than that of a proprietary operating system (even for the likes of Apple & Microsoft).
Having the source code means that companies can make changes very fast themselves, such as when they can use a cheaper support chip. Note that companies that compete bitterly at marketing, can cooperate in enhancing the Linux kernel. Also everyone knows what's coming up in the next release of the Linux kernel, unlike a Microsoft O/S - see the court case where Microsoft did the dirty on Word Perfect.
http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20130226153347343 [...] Novell's arguments are clear and powerful. "A reasonable jury could find that Microsoft's conduct was anticompetitive because it harmed Novell, was not competition on the merits, and was reasonably capable of contributing significantly to maintaining Microsoft's monopoly power in the operating systems market," Novell writes. Nowhere, it says, does Microsoft defend Microsoft's conduct as competition on the merits. And Microsoft's brief neglected to mention to the appeals court, or respond to, the District Court's conclusion that a jury could have found Microsoft's justifications for its conduct "to be pretextual." Worse, Microsoft is asking the appeals court to confer immunity on it "for deception of competitors regardless of the effect on competition." [...]
It takes several years for companies to build the skills & experience of creating a good user experience using Linux, and now several companies have already mastered that hurdle for phones & tablets. Hence Apple's initial advantage is evaporating here.
I and my youngest son (15) both have Linux laptops that never had Microsoft installed. He prefers it to the Apple desktop, but he had previous experience of Linux on the desktop. When he was 9 he did a poster for school showing the advantages of Linux, something to do with economics I think.
(A fishwife is the wife of a fisherman. Cast your mind back a hundred years or so: the fishing fleet arrives back at 2 am, there is no radio, the motive power was sail, it is cold windy & raining, there are no freezers, no electricity, the menfolk simply want to safe the boats and flake to bed, their women folk have to climb out of bed and gut the fish ready for the market with very sharp knives. Now what kind of language are these 'gentle ladies' likely to be using? I bet these fishwives would make most sailors blush or go white with fright...)
In the off-season, the CERN computers are only doing 'theoretical' calculations, and since Creationists say that Evolution is only a 'theory' we know that anything theoretical is of no consequence hence that creating bitcoins would be more useful...
Did you hear that the new Pope is repainting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to more accurately reflect the true image of God - as we all know that God is not an old man with a white beard, but the Mighty FSM!.
Thanks, I understand the situation a lot better now!
I was aware of less than half of what you wrote, but not the full subtleties.
So in essence, the code that gcc compiles without using extensions is safe. And gcc can be combined with other software in the specified ways, to produce compiled code that is also safe (see the post I've replied to for the 'specified ways'). Here 'safe' means does not have its GPL status changed.
So the questioner can use gcc safely, and safely in more ways than I had stated.
Formally you should consult a lawyer. (Check that they are both competent and ethical. It is very important that they understand the legal and ethical implications of the GPL.)
I am _NOT_ lawyer!
The GPL v2 & 3, apply to the compiler not its output.
Any software that extends the gcc software, by virtue of incorporating the actual source code of the gcc compiler, is subject to the GPL. However, the output of the gcc during compilation and linking is _NOT_ subject to the GPL, unless the source code was already under the GPL.
Or to put it more simply, compiling using gcc does not change the status of the program being compiled with respect to the GPL.
My son's Apple Desktop with 8GB had problems when he tried to run 5 applications at the same time, and from time to time he had to reboot as the box had locked up for other reasons.
He has a Linux laptop for school. It has 16GB, but he seldom has more than 4GB tied up by programs and he often runs more than 5 applications at the same time. He likes his Linux laptop better than his Apple Desktop, in previous years he had to use a laptop with a Microsoft O/S.
He uses the 'Unity' Desktop Environment, which I can't stand, but it is his choice and it suits him - the beauty of Linux is that you can chose from a variety of Desktop Environments to find the one that suits you best. You are shit out of luck, in that department, if you stick with Apple or Microsoft O/S's!
I must admit that GNOME 3 was the most depressing software change for me in over 20 years of using Linux. It forces a cluttered screen and drastically reduces one's ability to customise the Desktop Environment. I run 16 or more virtual desktops, and have highly customised panels. I spend 8 to 12 hours almost every day sitting in front of a computer screen.
I want a Desktop Environment to help me, not get in the way of me trying to get things done. So trying to go from GNOME 2 to GNOME 3, was a huge negative experience.
I now use 'xfce' & 'mate', and am in the process of moving to the latter (I have 2 desktops & a laptop, all running Fedora Linux).
I have used Apple desktops, and Microsoft computers, but why subject yourself to unnecessary pain and frustration by doing so? Whenever I get frustrated by Linux, I think of Apple & Microsoft, and am relieved that I do have Linux - even though Linux is far from perfect...
GNOME 3 was a triumph of Fashion over Function, I was more or less happy with GNOME 2 with a few niggles about some minor losses of functionality. So I fled to 'xfce', and now I'm moving to 'mate' - 'xfce' is more mature and reliable, but 'mate' has some features I was missing ('mate' restored some of the minor, but very useful features in gedit & nautilus, that got dropped in later versions of GNOME 2).
I just hope the GIMP developers do not follow the lead of the GNOME developers!
Yes, I once had an exchange of emails with the developer of mdadm. He very patiently helped me explore a problem I had got myself into, and it also resulted in him adding a line to the documentation. This was essentially a PEBKAC error, with me being the one on the chair!
I raised 4 bugs with xine, 2 trivial, 1 moderate, and one obscure - all got fixed.
Once a new kernel had a bug which prevented my system accessing a dial up modem properly, there was an updated kernel in less than 24 hours with the fix. Alan Cox himself replied to my initial bug report.
I have have had Michael Meeks, a leading LibreOffice developer, remote access my machine (with my express permission) to investigate a bug that I had raised.
Though I was a lot less successful in the bugs I raised for OpenOffice, and some other FOSS projects.
Probably about the same chance that the USA would keep their's!
I remember a US president saying on TV, that America had No Intention of bombing Hanoi! Not too long after that, Hanoi was bombed! In fact, I read that Hanoi was the most heavily defended city (in terms of anti-aircraft defences) ever to be bombed. Much to their surprise, the North Vietnamese managed to shoot down some B52's1!
Slashdot Mirror
Write and tell them you that want a matte screen.
I know I prefer matte screens - but at least they do come with Linux!
Tell your friends, relatives, colleagues, anyone - pass the word...
Linux grows mostly by word-of-mouth. So that next time you want to buy a laptop, there may be more opportunities - please encourage people to support :Linux companies now! Though I suspect that you are already doing so!
There are other companies that sell Linux preloaded, if you look for them.
I am in New Zealand, and we got Linux laptops for me and my youngest son (15) from https://zareason.co.nz./
I had a ten year old phone me up because he wanted to learn Java, his choice.
He is willing and able to concentrate on programming for hours at a time.
I will encourage him to learn several other languages as well - that way he will better distinguish between programming concepts and their implementation in a particular language.
One of the main problems with C# is that it runs best on an O/S that is all but dead in name.
Java is cross platform, you can develop in a Linux environment and run the program in other O/S's.
Java is better than C for most projects - don't need to worry about pointers and allocating memory.
Good programmers are fluent in at least 3 different computer languages, and try to use the one most appropriate.
Bad programmers insist that their favourite language is best.
Hmm...
I've coded in Assembler, FORTRAN, and COBOL in the past. I've even been paid to teach people C. I wrote my first BASIC program in 1968.
Now I use Java on Linux, with Postgres as our database of choice.
Looks like I'll get funding to double the number of programmers in my team from one to two people - we will be using a prerelease of of Java Enterprise 7.
For large complex projects Java is fine, even for very small teams.
http://zareason.com/shop/Laptops
Linux laptops, no Microsoft Tax.
Yes, when a large animal is dying, you can still be mortally wounded by their death spasms.
I'm more worried by Apple, but Apple has already lost the server wars, and seems to be starting to lose in the smart phone & tablet space. I think we are starting to see manufacturers & OEMs (those in the consumer electronics and phone segments) that are beholden to neither Apple nor Microsoft, start moving up the food chain - the current battleground is tablets, next is laptops...
Note all eBooks are based on Linux, and so are 'smart' TV's. There are probably people who boast that they are totally Microsoft, but don't realize that they already have Linux in devices they own, except that it is not widely known.
Essentially companies can innovate faster with Linux. Also, the cost of maintaining & enhancing Linux and associated software is shared by a very large group of companies (some very large like IBM) - so the real cost of using Linux for a company is less than that of a proprietary operating system (even for the likes of Apple & Microsoft).
Having the source code means that companies can make changes very fast themselves, such as when they can use a cheaper support chip. Note that companies that compete bitterly at marketing, can cooperate in enhancing the Linux kernel. Also everyone knows what's coming up in the next release of the Linux kernel, unlike a Microsoft O/S - see the court case where Microsoft did the dirty on Word Perfect.
http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20130226153347343
[...]
Novell's arguments are clear and powerful. "A reasonable jury could find that Microsoft's conduct was anticompetitive because it harmed Novell, was not competition on the merits, and was reasonably capable of contributing significantly to maintaining Microsoft's monopoly power in the operating systems market," Novell writes. Nowhere, it says, does Microsoft defend Microsoft's conduct as competition on the merits. And Microsoft's brief neglected to mention to the appeals court, or respond to, the District Court's conclusion that a jury could have found Microsoft's justifications for its conduct "to be pretextual." Worse, Microsoft is asking the appeals court to confer immunity on it "for deception of competitors regardless of the effect on competition."
[...]
It takes several years for companies to build the skills & experience of creating a good user experience using Linux, and now several companies have already mastered that hurdle for phones & tablets. Hence Apple's initial advantage is evaporating here.
I and my youngest son (15) both have Linux laptops that never had Microsoft installed. He prefers it to the Apple desktop, but he had previous experience of Linux on the desktop. When he was 9 he did a poster for school showing the advantages of Linux, something to do with economics I think.
Hmm...
I was trying to point out, possibly too subtly, that Microsoft is now essentially irrelevant!
Micro who?
Are but would that comment make a fishwife blush?
(A fishwife is the wife of a fisherman. Cast your mind back a hundred years or so: the fishing fleet arrives back at 2 am, there is no radio, the motive power was sail, it is cold windy & raining, there are no freezers, no electricity, the menfolk simply want to safe the boats and flake to bed, their women folk have to climb out of bed and gut the fish ready for the market with very sharp knives. Now what kind of language are these 'gentle ladies' likely to be using? I bet these fishwives would make most sailors blush or go white with fright...)
An excellent idea!
In the off-season, the CERN computers are only doing 'theoretical' calculations, and since Creationists say that Evolution is only a 'theory' we know that anything theoretical is of no consequence hence that creating bitcoins would be more useful...
Did you hear that the new Pope is repainting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to more accurately reflect the true image of God - as we all know that God is not an old man with a white beard, but the Mighty FSM!.
To produce just one Higgs particle costs tens of thousands of millions of dollars!
Then to just causally give ten away at random is a scandalous waste of money!!
I think it is a SCAM!!!
These people also support Evolution, and hence claim the Earth is thousands of millions of years old!!!!
As Creationists Know, the Earth was created only 6 thousand years ago by the Flying Spaghetti Monster!!!!!
Hmm...
Gridbag layout is simple, once you learn it and are _DISCIPLINED_.
I would hate to try and devise an alternative.
I have made major use of it in at least 2 commercial project.
Gridbag layout is great for some GUI problems, I would be more than happy to use it again.
Thanks, I understand the situation a lot better now!
I was aware of less than half of what you wrote, but not the full subtleties.
So in essence, the code that gcc compiles without using extensions is safe. And gcc can be combined with other software in the specified ways, to produce compiled code that is also safe (see the post I've replied to for the 'specified ways'). Here 'safe' means does not have its GPL status changed.
So the questioner can use gcc safely, and safely in more ways than I had stated.
gcc is the standard compiler for Linux.
It is the only compiler I've used on Linux.
Formally you should consult a lawyer.
(Check that they are both competent and ethical.
It is very important that they understand the legal
and ethical implications of the GPL.)
I am _NOT_ lawyer!
The GPL v2 & 3, apply to the compiler not its output.
Any software that extends the gcc software, by virtue of incorporating the actual source code of the gcc compiler, is subject to the GPL. However, the output of the gcc during compilation and linking is _NOT_ subject to the GPL, unless the source code was already under the GPL.
Or to put it more simply, compiling using gcc does not change the status of the program being compiled with respect to the GPL.
Besides which, you'd have to reverse polarity to fly over the South Pole! :-)
"... model rocketry ..."
Obviously you are a terrorist, as who else would want to work on rockets outside their job??? :-)
My son's Apple Desktop with 8GB had problems when he tried to run 5 applications at the same time, and from time to time he had to reboot as the box had locked up for other reasons.
He has a Linux laptop for school. It has 16GB, but he seldom has more than 4GB tied up by programs and he often runs more than 5 applications at the same time. He likes his Linux laptop better than his Apple Desktop, in previous years he had to use a laptop with a Microsoft O/S.
He uses the 'Unity' Desktop Environment, which I can't stand, but it is his choice and it suits him - the beauty of Linux is that you can chose from a variety of Desktop Environments to find the one that suits you best. You are shit out of luck, in that department, if you stick with Apple or Microsoft O/S's!
I must admit that GNOME 3 was the most depressing software change for me in over 20 years of using Linux. It forces a cluttered screen and drastically reduces one's ability to customise the Desktop Environment. I run 16 or more virtual desktops, and have highly customised panels. I spend 8 to 12 hours almost every day sitting in front of a computer screen.
I want a Desktop Environment to help me, not get in the way of me trying to get things done. So trying to go from GNOME 2 to GNOME 3, was a huge negative experience.
I now use 'xfce' & 'mate', and am in the process of moving to the latter (I have 2 desktops & a laptop, all running Fedora Linux).
I have used Apple desktops, and Microsoft computers, but why subject yourself to unnecessary pain and frustration by doing so? Whenever I get frustrated by Linux, I think of Apple & Microsoft, and am relieved that I do have Linux - even though Linux is far from perfect...
GNOME 3 was a triumph of Fashion over Function, I was more or less happy with GNOME 2 with a few niggles about some minor losses of functionality. So I fled to 'xfce', and now I'm moving to 'mate' - 'xfce' is more mature and reliable, but 'mate' has some features I was missing ('mate' restored some of the minor, but very useful features in gedit & nautilus, that got dropped in later versions of GNOME 2).
I just hope the GIMP developers do not follow the lead of the GNOME developers!
Yes, I once had an exchange of emails with the developer of mdadm. He very patiently helped me explore a problem I had got myself into, and it also resulted in him adding a line to the documentation. This was essentially a PEBKAC error, with me being the one on the chair!
I raised 4 bugs with xine, 2 trivial, 1 moderate, and one obscure - all got fixed.
Once a new kernel had a bug which prevented my system accessing a dial up modem properly, there was an updated kernel in less than 24 hours with the fix. Alan Cox himself replied to my initial bug report.
I have have had Michael Meeks, a leading LibreOffice developer, remote access my machine (with my express permission) to investigate a bug that I had raised.
Though I was a lot less successful in the bugs I raised for OpenOffice, and some other FOSS projects.
My Desktop Path:
GNOME 2 ==> xfce ==> mate
http://mate-desktop.org/
Probably about the same chance that the USA would keep their's!
I remember a US president saying on TV, that America had No Intention of bombing Hanoi! Not too long after that, Hanoi was bombed! In fact, I read that Hanoi was the most heavily defended city (in terms of anti-aircraft defences) ever to be bombed. Much to their surprise, the North Vietnamese managed to shoot down some B52's1!