"And why can't other wm gnome/kde do it today as well?"
Because GNOME and KDE are bloated and over engineered, while Rasterman (Enlightenment lead coder) is an old-school Amiga coder who knows how to program graphical stuff properly.
All Linux users owe it to themselves to try out some of the alternatives to GNOME and KDE if they haven't already. You can continue to use your favourite GTK/qt apps and your user experience will improve considerably.
MS has just replaced the technical challenge of reverse engineering their closed formats with the legal challenge of infringing their patents on the new "open" formats.
Scandinavia may not have a huge population but it is one of the most progressive and IT literate areas in the world, so people pay attention when they announce this sort of initiative.
Oh, and not all of Scandinavia is "fjord-riddled".
At one point every farmer in the US was encouraged to grow hemp - "Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." - Thomas Jefferson
Nope, a chord keyboard is where different key combinations ("chords") are used to produce each character. The BAT Keyboard is a good example of a chord keyboard.
I prefer to think of Apple as a consumer appliance company (allbeit a consumer appliance that runs Unix). The OS is an integrated part of that. It's only when you think of the PC market where the hardware has been commoditized do you think of the need to buy a seperate OS.
"This NO was intended to be a firm statement against the European policies in general, but your average politician is not bright enough to get that message."
How on earth do you know? Have you asked every No voter? The problem is that people voted No for many different reasons, and it's going to be very difficult for the politicians to work out how to revise the constitution to make it more acceptable to the voters.
Personally I would like to see a truely democratic federal EU which applies the old European ideal of subsidiarity properly. Decisions should be made on the lowest level (local, national or European) that makes sense.
Well, that's what the EU constitution was supposed to do (partly anyway). Unfortunately the French and particularly the Dutch voted against it in recent referendums. One part of the Dutch argument for voting against it was that the EU is too undemocratic. Sigh.
"look at the rediculously slow level of progress that we have made in computer science"
Personally I would put that down to a lack of competition. Look at the amount of innovation in the home computer market in the 80s and compare that with now when Microsoft has consolidated it's monopoly.
Also, imagine the level of progress if Xerox had patented the GUI. What about if the command line had been patented?
"So let's dump copyright and give patents a go. If it doesn't work, let's look at why it doesn't work and try to come up with a system that will."
Yeah, that will work. Let's ask the EU legislators to scrap copyrights on software! Once you give power to business it's very difficult to get it back again.
"In the USA two of the most desired and honored professions... are doctors and lawyers. In France it's doctors and engineers."
My theory as to why lawyers are so rich/powerful in the US is that the law is too complicated to be properly understood by normal people. American civil law (unfortunately) has its roots in English common law and common (sometimes called case) law is based on the concept of precedence. The system which the French (and many other non-English speaking countries) use is systematically codified which means that it is more logical and can be understood without knowledge of every legal case since the year dot.
I'm a bit sentimental about PPC, but I guess this move probably makes some sense for Apple (see here)
I have a few questions that I haven't seen raised anywhere else though: 1. Will Windows run on these machines? 2. Will Apple offer some kind of Window compatibility using something like WINE? 3. What will happen to Yellow Dog Linux?
From what I have heard ESR/RMS are considering requiring companies who derive revenue from GPL'd code (Amazon & Google for example) to provide a revenue stream back to the authors. This is a terrible idea... it sounds like a way of limiting the usage.
If so, I think the "Free" might go out of "Free Software."
I'm not sure how one can compare anything as democratizing as Open Source with a system as control oriented as Communism.
Communism != Planned economies. Just because the Soviet Union and other states had planned economies it doesn't mean that you should confuse the two. Marx believed that true communism would mean that the state would eventually wither away...
Not true. The British Empire was at the peak of its expansion after WWI, but quickly went into decline afterwards (especially in the aftermath of WWII with the independence of the different colonies on the Indian sub-continent and Africa).
I normally slag off Microsoft like everyone else, but in this case it seems like they had a clue.
An aside: I remember reading once that Jeff had got into this stuff after reading a book by the guy who did the visual effects in the trippy scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Does anyone remember the name of that book? I have a nasty deeling it's out of print now...
Not sure if you're being facetious here, but presumably they're saying it doesn't need to run a Windows style installer program or that it doesn't need you to repartition your hard drive etc.
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"And why can't other wm gnome/kde do it today as well?"
Because GNOME and KDE are bloated and over engineered, while Rasterman (Enlightenment lead coder) is an old-school Amiga coder who knows how to program graphical stuff properly.
All Linux users owe it to themselves to try out some of the alternatives to GNOME and KDE if they haven't already. You can continue to use your favourite GTK/qt apps and your user experience will improve considerably.
"I'm not saying this is right"
Good, because you're clearly making this up off the top of your head. Moderators: How on earth did this get Score:5, Insightful?
MS has just replaced the technical challenge of reverse engineering their closed formats with the legal challenge of infringing their patents on the new "open" formats.
Please read this entire document carefully to understand your rights.
Scandinavia may not have a huge population but it is one of the most progressive and IT literate areas in the world, so people pay attention when they announce this sort of initiative.
Oh, and not all of Scandinavia is "fjord-riddled".
At one point every farmer in the US was encouraged to grow hemp - "Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country." - Thomas Jefferson
"I think it's called a chord keyboard."
Nope, a chord keyboard is where different key combinations ("chords") are used to produce each character. The BAT Keyboard is a good example of a chord keyboard.
This keyboard is obviously designed for gamers.
naidnE elttiL
"Apple is a hardware company."
I prefer to think of Apple as a consumer appliance company (allbeit a consumer appliance that runs Unix). The OS is an integrated part of that. It's only when you think of the PC market where the hardware has been commoditized do you think of the need to buy a seperate OS.
I really can't see what the EU could have done about this. There's price controls but they're not really a sensible solution.
"This NO was intended to be a firm statement against the European policies in general, but your average politician is not bright enough to get that message."
How on earth do you know? Have you asked every No voter? The problem is that people voted No for many different reasons, and it's going to be very difficult for the politicians to work out how to revise the constitution to make it more acceptable to the voters.
Personally I would like to see a truely democratic federal EU which applies the old European ideal of subsidiarity properly. Decisions should be made on the lowest level (local, national or European) that makes sense.
It's not the EUs fault that opportunist businessmen used the introduction of the new currency to put up prices!
Well, that's what the EU constitution was supposed to do (partly anyway). Unfortunately the French and particularly the Dutch voted against it in recent referendums. One part of the Dutch argument for voting against it was that the EU is too undemocratic. Sigh.
"look at the rediculously slow level of progress that we have made in computer science"
Personally I would put that down to a lack of competition. Look at the amount of innovation in the home computer market in the 80s and compare that with now when Microsoft has consolidated it's monopoly.
Also, imagine the level of progress if Xerox had patented the GUI. What about if the command line had been patented?
"So let's dump copyright and give patents a go. If it doesn't work, let's look at why it doesn't work and try to come up with a system that will."
Yeah, that will work. Let's ask the EU legislators to scrap copyrights on software! Once you give power to business it's very difficult to get it back again.
"Any Europeans/Japanese in this discussion? How are you doing?"
Not as badly as you guys seem to be doing. Never underestimate the value of not having English as your mother tongue!
"In the USA two of the most desired and honored professions ... are doctors and lawyers. In France it's doctors and engineers."
My theory as to why lawyers are so rich/powerful in the US is that the law is too complicated to be properly understood by normal people. American civil law (unfortunately) has its roots in English common law and common (sometimes called case) law is based on the concept of precedence. The system which the French (and many other non-English speaking countries) use is systematically codified which means that it is more logical and can be understood without knowledge of every legal case since the year dot.
This problem is even worse when you remember that the comma is used instead of the decimal point in many non-English speaking countries.
I'm a bit sentimental about PPC, but I guess this move probably makes some sense for Apple (see here)
I have a few questions that I haven't seen raised anywhere else though:
1. Will Windows run on these machines?
2. Will Apple offer some kind of Window compatibility using something like WINE?
3. What will happen to Yellow Dog Linux?
All true zombies are as seen in the "of the Dead" series.
I know you're joking but real zombies are alive. Just ask Clairvius Narcisse - poor guy!
From what I have heard ESR/RMS are considering requiring companies who derive revenue from GPL'd code (Amazon & Google for example) to provide a revenue stream back to the authors. This is a terrible idea... it sounds like a way of limiting the usage.
If so, I think the "Free" might go out of "Free Software."
You're right, it is FUD - read this
I'm not sure how one can compare anything as democratizing as Open Source with a system as control oriented as Communism.
Communism != Planned economies. Just because the Soviet Union and other states had planned economies it doesn't mean that you should confuse the two. Marx believed that true communism would mean that the state would eventually wither away...
Not true. The British Empire was at the peak of its expansion after WWI, but quickly went into decline afterwards (especially in the aftermath of WWII with the independence of the different colonies on the Indian sub-continent and Africa).
Very cool, thanks! I love this stuff :D
Sorry to answer my own post but after a bit of Googling I found the answer. The book was Digital Harmony (published 1980) by John Whitney
Wow!!!
I normally slag off Microsoft like everyone else, but in this case it seems like they had a clue.
An aside: I remember reading once that Jeff had got into this stuff after reading a book by the guy who did the visual effects in the trippy scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Does anyone remember the name of that book? I have a nasty deeling it's out of print now...
Not sure if you're being facetious here, but presumably they're saying it doesn't need to run a Windows style installer program or that it doesn't need you to repartition your hard drive etc.