For closure, I'll respond to my own comment - according to their website, the MS Office Web Apps do in fact support other browsers and other platforms.
Again, irony would abound if availability of Office Web Apps enabled widescale migration to Linux on desktops, by virtue of eliminating the dependency on Office. Otoh, since for businesses that would drive either licensing the apps from MS in their cloud, or adoption of Windows Server licenses (to be able to run SharePoint), it could be a hedge-your-bets kind of move on MS's part.
Of course, until there's a clear analysis of how degraded the user experience is when accessing from something other than IE on Windows, I, for one, have this urge to keep chanting "it's a tarp, it's a tarp". We'll see.
I did some searching online, and can't find the answer - do the MS cloud version of Office apps require that the client be IE on Windows? Or does access from browsers other than IE on platforms other than Windows work (even if not as well integrated)?
I have no doubt that at a minimum, MS built it such that the user experience is degraded somewhat on other browsers/platforms (think Outlook Web Access), but if in fact everything functions, it could actually indirectly enable migration of desktops to other platforms, since it addresses the oft-voiced "MS Office compatibility" issue.
Wouldn't that be ironic, if the MS move to cloud-based services finally ushers in the Year of the Linux Desktop?!)
You say support is anemic in FOSS alternatives -- and link to an article about GMail and Google Apps (which aren't FOSS) in which a university doesn't mention even once having any issue with their support.
Don't even get me started on the sand-pounding you do to get help with issues in a proprietary product (e.g., IIS) vs. the totally transparent and much more effective support available with well-run FOSS products (e.g., Apache).
Not karma-whoring, true story. In 2007, we had a couple of Microsoft reps in to talk to our team on our multi-billion dollar defense project, which uses an eclectic mix of MS and open source technologies. I asked him about any initiatives to enable better integration, whether it be open source file systems, office file formats, or whatever.
He and his partner's response, in front of an audience of 150 or so developers/integrators... "Open source? I can't understand why anyone in his right mind would want to use any product hacked by a couple of kids in the Phillipines, when they could be using our technology." I asked him if he was kidding, or if he really felt that products like Apache, Linux, PHP, MySQL, Firefox, etc. were hack jobs by kids -- he said he absolutely meant it, and we'd be crazy to move off the MS reservation. This was before he knew we had made heavy use of lots of FOSS.
Now, it's just two guys' opinion, you'll say... but in 2007, for MS reps, whose job it is to reach out to companies about MS technology, in front of a large audience, to assert such? I was stunned.
Re:I've Heard of It a Few Times
on
Why Wave Failed
·
· Score: 1
But if you read it Shatner-esque, you'd then have to lean in and kiss the slightly-out-of-focus glamour-filtered girl... and this being/., well -- THAT ain't gonna happen!
They're not rewriting copyright law... the DMCA law (duly enacted by Congress) had this process embedded in it, specifically to ensure appropriate flexibility. It simply permits exemptions to be defined to "tune" the law's application.
I find it... uh, whatever the opposite of "disturbing" is (not sure what prefix to use).
Confirmed, Handbrake has come a long way in the last 9 months, and now offers every option (I believe) available from x264, the encoding lib it uses. It also has picked up speed a fair amount (though I think that's more from improvements in x264 than Handbrake).
I've found the nightly builds (in spite of the disclaimers to the contrary) to be very stable, and if you're on an *buntu (or can spin up an Ubuntu VM), you can install from the PPA quite easily.
Here for instructions on installing from PPA; here's some info from the Ubuntu wiki on using Handbrake to encode for Android.
A feature just now gaining support in the nightly builds, which I look forward to, is a "preview" mode, so you can check the effect of settings changes on the resulting video quality.
I understand what you're saying, but installing the distro in a VM isn't much extra resource/work over a tarball.
Plug in your preferred virtualization solution, of course, they all support exporting directories.
Note that I'm not affirming your position that Windows7 is easier than a standard Ubuntu install... but just curious.
Do you believe that Win7 is easier than, e.g., the HP QuickWeb fast-boot environment, that's based on Splashtop (which is itself based on Linux)? Than the Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface?
I've been very surprised, since buying a laptop for my daughter recently, to see her using QuickWeb almost exclusively. She only boots into Windows7 when she needs a full word processor.
I think these comparisons often ignore that while there's mostly just one Windows "apple"*, there are many Linux "oranges" to compare it to... Splashtops, netbook-oriented user interfaces like the Ubuntu Netbook Remix and others, soon even Android and MeeGo based environments.
* Probably a bad metaphor for MS Windows, but you know what I mean...
Any reasonably alert admin can easily secure a Linux system with Mandatory Access Controls via AppArmor or SELinux. And no, it's not the rocket science people make it out to be... it's now very straightforward, with one or the other approach (often both) being well supported in every major distro. And profiles for most major apps are easily found, or even if you need to develop one, it's just not that hard
Is there an equivalent in Windows? (asking honestly) I never hear it talked about. When I read about the sandboxing being applied to recent versions of IE (which is a good thing), it sounds like an app-specific version of the same concepts. But is there a general ability to define and constrain resource requirements/access rights for any app? Or are Windows systems reliant on one-off app-specific implementations, and at the mercy of the product producer for such?
... able to issue a simple SELinux profile fix, the same day, that slapped the exploit around the room like a silly little girl, and also fix the kernel and put it out in the repositories the next day, and... what? Microsoft doesn't have any SELinux like protection mechanism?? Updates take a MONTH or more???
Probably not the orange you wanted to compare to his apple. He wasn't saying that it having been there for years was the issue, but that them not being able to rapidly roll out protections or a fix is the issue. 5 days is an eternity.
Not sure I agree their attempts via lobbying were unsuccessful. Linux is used in a significant way in government/DoD systems, as noted in the article, Mr. Clarke surprised many by insisting on an evaluation of Linux in 2004 - and I remember how that study and its results ran into resistance across the boards, before the electronic ink was dry. Without lobbying efforts having tipped the playing field, Linux could very well have significantly more penetration in government infrastructure than it does today.
And note that on the desktop front, Microsoft's strategy arguably has worked bizarrely well... the irrational resistance in federal circles to Linux desktops that prevails to this day is amazing.
Just curious - too far in my technical past for me to recall - Ceph is claimed to adhere to POSIX standards. Do POSIX standards accommodate the "eventually consistent" filesystem models?
As Mr. Morden said to Londo Mollari when Londo asked why not just destroy the Narn homeworld... "one thing at a time, Ambassador, one thing at a time".
$18(-ish)/year for my ~12GB of photos/home-vids/documents, simple cron integration via things like https://jets3t.dev.java.net/ JetS3t's "synchronize", daily incrementals with weekly fulls. Couple of hours to setup, never spent time on it since (other than reviewing cron logs, occasionally testing retrieval). 'Nuff said.
Informative?!? This was rated as Informative?!?./ has really gone downhill, the post doesn't even describe the acceptable payment methods, the actual cost of the dues, nothing. Sheesh....
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For closure, I'll respond to my own comment - according to their website, the MS Office Web Apps do in fact support other browsers and other platforms.
Again, irony would abound if availability of Office Web Apps enabled widescale migration to Linux on desktops, by virtue of eliminating the dependency on Office. Otoh, since for businesses that would drive either licensing the apps from MS in their cloud, or adoption of Windows Server licenses (to be able to run SharePoint), it could be a hedge-your-bets kind of move on MS's part.
Of course, until there's a clear analysis of how degraded the user experience is when accessing from something other than IE on Windows, I, for one, have this urge to keep chanting "it's a tarp, it's a tarp". We'll see.
I did some searching online, and can't find the answer - do the MS cloud version of Office apps require that the client be IE on Windows? Or does access from browsers other than IE on platforms other than Windows work (even if not as well integrated)?
I have no doubt that at a minimum, MS built it such that the user experience is degraded somewhat on other browsers/platforms (think Outlook Web Access), but if in fact everything functions, it could actually indirectly enable migration of desktops to other platforms, since it addresses the oft-voiced "MS Office compatibility" issue.
Wouldn't that be ironic, if the MS move to cloud-based services finally ushers in the Year of the Linux Desktop?!)
You say support is anemic in FOSS alternatives -- and link to an article about GMail and Google Apps (which aren't FOSS) in which a university doesn't mention even once having any issue with their support.
Don't even get me started on the sand-pounding you do to get help with issues in a proprietary product (e.g., IIS) vs. the totally transparent and much more effective support available with well-run FOSS products (e.g., Apache).
Not karma-whoring, true story. In 2007, we had a couple of Microsoft reps in to talk to our team on our multi-billion dollar defense project, which uses an eclectic mix of MS and open source technologies. I asked him about any initiatives to enable better integration, whether it be open source file systems, office file formats, or whatever.
... "Open source? I can't understand why anyone in his right mind would want to use any product hacked by a couple of kids in the Phillipines, when they could be using our technology." I asked him if he was kidding, or if he really felt that products like Apache, Linux, PHP, MySQL, Firefox, etc. were hack jobs by kids -- he said he absolutely meant it, and we'd be crazy to move off the MS reservation. This was before he knew we had made heavy use of lots of FOSS.
... but in 2007, for MS reps, whose job it is to reach out to companies about MS technology, in front of a large audience, to assert such? I was stunned.
He and his partner's response, in front of an audience of 150 or so developers/integrators
Now, it's just two guys' opinion, you'll say
But if you read it Shatner-esque, you'd then have to lean in and kiss the slightly-out-of-focus glamour-filtered girl ... and this being /., well -- THAT ain't gonna happen!
They're not rewriting copyright law ... the DMCA law (duly enacted by Congress) had this process embedded in it, specifically to ensure appropriate flexibility. It simply permits exemptions to be defined to "tune" the law's application.
... uh, whatever the opposite of "disturbing" is (not sure what prefix to use).
I find it
Confirmed, Handbrake has come a long way in the last 9 months, and now offers every option (I believe) available from x264, the encoding lib it uses. It also has picked up speed a fair amount (though I think that's more from improvements in x264 than Handbrake).
I've found the nightly builds (in spite of the disclaimers to the contrary) to be very stable, and if you're on an *buntu (or can spin up an Ubuntu VM), you can install from the PPA quite easily.
Here for instructions on installing from PPA; here's some info from the Ubuntu wiki on using Handbrake to encode for Android.
A feature just now gaining support in the nightly builds, which I look forward to, is a "preview" mode, so you can check the effect of settings changes on the resulting video quality.
I understand what you're saying, but installing the distro in a VM isn't much extra resource/work over a tarball. Plug in your preferred virtualization solution, of course, they all support exporting directories.
Note that I'm not affirming your position that Windows7 is easier than a standard Ubuntu install ... but just curious.
... Splashtops, netbook-oriented user interfaces like the Ubuntu Netbook Remix and others, soon even Android and MeeGo based environments.
...
Do you believe that Win7 is easier than, e.g., the HP QuickWeb fast-boot environment, that's based on Splashtop (which is itself based on Linux)? Than the Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface?
I've been very surprised, since buying a laptop for my daughter recently, to see her using QuickWeb almost exclusively. She only boots into Windows7 when she needs a full word processor.
I think these comparisons often ignore that while there's mostly just one Windows "apple"*, there are many Linux "oranges" to compare it to
* Probably a bad metaphor for MS Windows, but you know what I mean
Any reasonably alert admin can easily secure a Linux system with Mandatory Access Controls via AppArmor or SELinux. And no, it's not the rocket science people make it out to be ... it's now very straightforward, with one or the other approach (often both) being well supported in every major distro. And profiles for most major apps are easily found, or even if you need to develop one, it's just not that hard
Is there an equivalent in Windows? (asking honestly) I never hear it talked about. When I read about the sandboxing being applied to recent versions of IE (which is a good thing), it sounds like an app-specific version of the same concepts. But is there a general ability to define and constrain resource requirements/access rights for any app? Or are Windows systems reliant on one-off app-specific implementations, and at the mercy of the product producer for such?
... able to issue a simple SELinux profile fix, the same day, that slapped the exploit around the room like a silly little girl, and also fix the kernel and put it out in the repositories the next day, and ... what? Microsoft doesn't have any SELinux like protection mechanism?? Updates take a MONTH or more???
Probably not the orange you wanted to compare to his apple. He wasn't saying that it having been there for years was the issue, but that them not being able to rapidly roll out protections or a fix is the issue. 5 days is an eternity.
Not sure I agree their attempts via lobbying were unsuccessful. Linux is used in a significant way in government/DoD systems, as noted in the article, Mr. Clarke surprised many by insisting on an evaluation of Linux in 2004 - and I remember how that study and its results ran into resistance across the boards, before the electronic ink was dry. Without lobbying efforts having tipped the playing field, Linux could very well have significantly more penetration in government infrastructure than it does today.
... the irrational resistance in federal circles to Linux desktops that prevails to this day is amazing.
And note that on the desktop front, Microsoft's strategy arguably has worked bizarrely well
"Informative"? That was funny!
Just curious - too far in my technical past for me to recall - Ceph is claimed to adhere to POSIX standards. Do POSIX standards accommodate the "eventually consistent" filesystem models?
Sorry, forgot that newlines get sucked up.
Repeating ... zero is a number.
>> Since when did zero multiplied by anything become a number? Imbecile. Uhh ... zero is a number.
Then Stross could be pleased that one of his novels had become reality in record time.
Calm down, if you watch the video, you'll see we can easily outrun them.
As Mr. Morden said to Londo Mollari when Londo asked why not just destroy the Narn homeworld ... "one thing at a time, Ambassador, one thing at a time".
Arg! Support says the server's down again. Let's throw beets at them^W^W^W^W make them eat beets!
There, fixed that for ya
Because I'll help her. I'm just saying.
$18(-ish)/year for my ~12GB of photos/home-vids/documents, simple cron integration via things like https://jets3t.dev.java.net/ JetS3t's "synchronize", daily incrementals with weekly fulls. Couple of hours to setup, never spent time on it since (other than reviewing cron logs, occasionally testing retrieval). 'Nuff said.
All I can say is, dyslexics of the world, untie.
Informative?!? This was rated as Informative?!? ./ has really gone downhill, the post doesn't even describe the acceptable payment methods, the actual cost of the dues, nothing. Sheesh ....
Ah, i haven't thought about that book in years, thank you! Oh ... wait ... as a earthbound groundhogger ... it's actually a pretty scary book. Drat you!