The voice inside my head tells me that it's wrong to make inferences and predictions on the general trend of desktop Linux based solely on the development of the WINDOW MANAGER.
Reading through the comments, I've seen outrageous statements on both sides of the issue. As someone who works in the oil industry, let's clear this up.
Most of the people who say that we're running out of oil also tend to be geologists. The reason: yes, it's true, all the "easy" places are already being drilled in.
Most of the people who say that oil won't run out for a long time are engineers. The reason? Most oil reserves still have a lot of oil left.
Most people think of an oil reserve as a big cup that you just drain. This is not at all true. Most of the time, a large portion of oil is stuck to rocks. About 40-50% of oil is currently not recoverable.
Why don't we recover it? Because it is too expensive. Or at least was expensive, when oil was $20 a barrel. Now that oil prices have gone up, companies are starting to spend more to recover more oil. (see: oil sands in Canada). People have made quite a mint going back to West Texas and using present-day technology to recover the remaining bits of oil. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it's called 'supply and demand'.
Smaller discoveries are also happening all the time. The middle East may be tapped out, but there have been major discoveries in untapped areas, like India and Africa.
Heck, even Chevron had a major discover wayyy deep in the Gulf of New Mexico.
I think the "peak oil theorists" opinion could be summarized as follows: "If technology doesn't evolve and costs don't rise, we will run out of oil." Think about how silly this is just in the context of the computer industry.
RedHat does charge $299 per year for one license. With Microsoft, you're getting $140 for a copy forever (and if you order from a major vender, it's basically free).
I know, I know, the argument is that you're getting perpetual support for the RedHat license- but have any of you tried to use it? It's generally pretty terrible. We've ended up switching everything to Ubuntu or CentOS b/c it's just as easy to find support by googling, rather than getting re-routed through RedHat.
It doesn't make sense to me. Over the lifetime of XP, you've paid $140, and gotten free updates. For the lifetime of RedHat (let's assume XP's ungodly 6-7 year lifespan so far) you're paying almost $2000!
You can also argue that "you don't need to get support for all the machines" but RedHat complains incessantly, and you won't get any updates, which isn't really safe for a corporate world.
Additionally, a significant Linux deployment usually requires someone with significant knowledge. Last I checked, it's cheaper to hire someone to manage a windows deployment than a RedHat one.
I wouldn't mind paying the $299 as a one time fee...but $2100?? Almost 10 times the value of a Windows license? Is the support your paying for really worth that much?
This is huge, as now people have access to ALL the.NET libraries.
Ironically, maybe Microsoft could be the company to take Python mainstream. First Google, now Microsoft...who's next?
Additionally, anyone ever think how powerful Visual Studio could be if they implemented something like Parrot runtime into.Net?
Given the potential for abuse, this doesn't seem like it would be that effective. What if instead:
Clicking "Report Pedophile" would put that specific screenname on a watch list. Then, when that screenname enters the "14 year olds just having fun" chatroom, the watch list would signal a warning and MSN could pay *extra special* attention to that chat session, either by having someone in real life enter the chatroom, or by using software to spot specific "pedo trends."
This would have the benefits of notifying someone in charge about a potential pedophile, but if your friends put you on it as a joke, you wouldn't be rammed by the cops.
Seriously, ANOTHER Linux distribution? Who is going to use this? I know the whole "different strokes for different folks" but no newbie is going to use this, they're going to use Ubuntu.
The people that are going to use this distro are the tinkerers that have the knowledge and capability to customize their own distro to meet their own spec.
Distros like this piss me off. Shit like this is holding Linux back. Instead of forking every time and serve a user base of 200, why don't you use your talent and skill to polish a distro that's actually going to go somewhere!
People need to realize that sites aren't generally that terrible. By the time the site's posted on Slashdot, it's been posted at five different other places.
Slashdot Mirror
The voice inside my head tells me that it's wrong to make inferences and predictions on the general trend of desktop Linux based solely on the development of the WINDOW MANAGER.
Reading through the comments, I've seen outrageous statements on both sides of the issue. As someone who works in the oil industry, let's clear this up. Most of the people who say that we're running out of oil also tend to be geologists. The reason: yes, it's true, all the "easy" places are already being drilled in. Most of the people who say that oil won't run out for a long time are engineers. The reason? Most oil reserves still have a lot of oil left. Most people think of an oil reserve as a big cup that you just drain. This is not at all true. Most of the time, a large portion of oil is stuck to rocks. About 40-50% of oil is currently not recoverable. Why don't we recover it? Because it is too expensive. Or at least was expensive, when oil was $20 a barrel. Now that oil prices have gone up, companies are starting to spend more to recover more oil. (see: oil sands in Canada). People have made quite a mint going back to West Texas and using present-day technology to recover the remaining bits of oil. Does this sound familiar? Yes, it's called 'supply and demand'. Smaller discoveries are also happening all the time. The middle East may be tapped out, but there have been major discoveries in untapped areas, like India and Africa. Heck, even Chevron had a major discover wayyy deep in the Gulf of New Mexico. I think the "peak oil theorists" opinion could be summarized as follows: "If technology doesn't evolve and costs don't rise, we will run out of oil." Think about how silly this is just in the context of the computer industry.
RedHat does charge $299 per year for one license. With Microsoft, you're getting $140 for a copy forever (and if you order from a major vender, it's basically free). I know, I know, the argument is that you're getting perpetual support for the RedHat license- but have any of you tried to use it? It's generally pretty terrible. We've ended up switching everything to Ubuntu or CentOS b/c it's just as easy to find support by googling, rather than getting re-routed through RedHat. It doesn't make sense to me. Over the lifetime of XP, you've paid $140, and gotten free updates. For the lifetime of RedHat (let's assume XP's ungodly 6-7 year lifespan so far) you're paying almost $2000! You can also argue that "you don't need to get support for all the machines" but RedHat complains incessantly, and you won't get any updates, which isn't really safe for a corporate world. Additionally, a significant Linux deployment usually requires someone with significant knowledge. Last I checked, it's cheaper to hire someone to manage a windows deployment than a RedHat one. I wouldn't mind paying the $299 as a one time fee...but $2100?? Almost 10 times the value of a Windows license? Is the support your paying for really worth that much?
This is huge, as now people have access to ALL the .NET libraries.
Ironically, maybe Microsoft could be the company to take Python mainstream. First Google, now Microsoft...who's next?
Additionally, anyone ever think how powerful Visual Studio could be if they implemented something like Parrot runtime into .Net?
Given the potential for abuse, this doesn't seem like it would be that effective. What if instead: Clicking "Report Pedophile" would put that specific screenname on a watch list. Then, when that screenname enters the "14 year olds just having fun" chatroom, the watch list would signal a warning and MSN could pay *extra special* attention to that chat session, either by having someone in real life enter the chatroom, or by using software to spot specific "pedo trends." This would have the benefits of notifying someone in charge about a potential pedophile, but if your friends put you on it as a joke, you wouldn't be rammed by the cops.
Seriously, ANOTHER Linux distribution? Who is going to use this? I know the whole "different strokes for different folks" but no newbie is going to use this, they're going to use Ubuntu. The people that are going to use this distro are the tinkerers that have the knowledge and capability to customize their own distro to meet their own spec. Distros like this piss me off. Shit like this is holding Linux back. Instead of forking every time and serve a user base of 200, why don't you use your talent and skill to polish a distro that's actually going to go somewhere!
People need to realize that sites aren't generally that terrible. By the time the site's posted on Slashdot, it's been posted at five different other places.
If you read the Thunderbird FAQ, you'll see that they have no intention of integrating a calendar. They deliberately left it so.