Does anybody know what is the market penetration of Photoshop? 50%? 20%? 3%? of Windows users?
Among my friends, I'm almost the only one who don't have it. Everyone else do (pirated of course), even though they only use it for simple tasks like cropping pictures and the like. Since they know that Photoshop is the preferred image manipulation program among graphics professionals, they won't listen to suggestions to use another application, since "professional means better".
As amazing as it may seem to certain people here, some of us actually pay for good software even at home.
Yes, it is amazing. None of my friends and few that I know of use anything but pirated software at home. They all use the professional version of various packages such as Windows, PS and Office, since they think that "professional = better", but they flat-out refuse to pay for it, since it is "too expensive". "I want it, but I'm not going to pay. Nobody will catch me anyway" is the prevalent opinion. So it is certainly amazing to see people actually buy software for use at home.
This does not apply to me though. I have a legal Windows license, and I don't use PS or Microsoft Office, as I only use Windows for games. I buy the games that like, because I want to support developers that make good games. For the rest of my computing needs, I use Linux and other F/OSS.
They can be detected at much longer ranges, though probably not in another star system. Another example would be a radar. It shows up on the enemy threat warning system long before you start to get echoes from their aircraft.
I guess you never heard about the US patent official that thought that everything that would be invented had already been so in the 19th century, and that all that would be left were small refinements of existing technology.;)
Energy abundant in the Oort Cloud? In what way? It is pretty far from any stellar energy source, you know. Even to just go to Jupiter and Saturn, which are much closer to the sun than the Oort Cloud, we had to use radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) rather than solar panels just because the intensity of the sunlight was so low.
I've noticed a lot of people in this thread making assertions about legal issue without specifying whether they are lawyers or not (probably not, how many lawyers read Slashdot?). And even if they were lawyers, nobody can say with absolute certainty how a court would decide. I'd take their assertions with several tons of salt.
I find it quite natural that those hobbyists would want to tinker with the software. That you think that this shouldn't be possible (except for yourself) is quite strange to me. The talk about weaponizing the toys is just the ordinary terrorism scare tactic, so try better next time.
If you want to lock down software, don't use software licensed under the GPLv3. It is certainly not an unintended consequence that you are not allowed to do so. It is one of the main points that the new version addresses that the old one didn't. If you don't like it, go write your own software.
May I ask you a simple question that I have been wondering about for some time? Are you a lawyer? Sometimes you sound like someone with legal training, but sometimes you just sound like you are talking out of your ass (or rather asserting your highest hopes as fact).
Sure it can, but why would you want to? With Bittorrent, more downloaders mean faster downloads, and you can be sure that most Linux users get their distro from the official tracker. Why sit and wait for some lonely seeder in the TPB swarm rather than going to the swarm downloading from the official tracker? It just sounds like an excuse to actually use TPB for the pirated stuff, and when the police knocks on your door, you claim to be downloading Linux. Yeah right!
Sure, but if you were the distributor, would you want to paint a bullseye on your distro with the text "Sue me!" below? They don't want to invite lawsuits, since they cost a lot of money, which could be spent on development instead, so they distribute without the questionable (patent-wise) codecs.
Including iTunes? Its user interface is design patented. Specifically, the playback controls of Lsongs had to move to the bottom to work around this patent.
Then I wonder what Apple would say about Songbird. It is extremely similar to iTunes interface-wise.
I hope and think that it will be Ubuntu. It's a lot more intuitive to use than RedHat
Ubuntu, a lot more intuitive? Did you even try any recent Red Hat system, especially Fedora 7? It is very similar to what I have seen and read about Ubuntu 7.04, so I don't know what is so much intuitive about Ubuntu.
Fedora is still horrible -- this typed in Fedora7.
Horrible in what way? I use it on both my work laptop and my home desktop, and I can't see what you find so horrible. I like Fedora 7, and I think that it is a really nice operating system.
Canonical has done a great job of building a community that is loyal
A community that happily piss on other Linux users because they are not using Ubuntu. That is quite a strong turn-off.
It would be one thing if they were few and far between, but every time there is a story about a non-Ubuntu distro, there are a whole lot of comments like
Are they still alive? Why the heck are those users not using Ubuntu instead? Ubuntu FTW! Ubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu!
and
The problem with <distro XXXX> is that it isn't Ubuntu.
The interoperability exemption is probably not tested in court. The Linux distributors don't want to become the test case, so they do not ship with libdvdcss.
I would only ever go to the piratebay.org for Linux distros (so I can help relieve the mirrors)
Many, if not most, modern Linux distros use Bittorrent as an offficial distribution method. You can simply go to their main trackers rather than going to The Pirate Bay for Linux distros.
That you want to run Windows software does not imply that you want to run Microsoft software. Thus, you are not undermining the business models of companies whose software you want to run. Or is the fact that their software only runs on Windows integral to their business models?
If Linux could run Windows executables and other windows type extensions
That will always require jumping through some hoops. Windows software expects a Windows environment, with a registry, drive letters and the Windows filesystem hierarchy. Running Windows applications will require some conversion, not only from Win32 calls to native calls, but an emulation of the registry and other Windows peculiarities.
Not to mention X has allowed you for ages to have multiple desktops, something that was only possible with third party apps for a long time in Windows.
Isn't it still? I haven't heard that Vista can have several virtual desktops, unless you are thinking of the Microsoft powertool.
Not to mention I do not need to spend hours installing extra software since most of what I need is installed when I install the OS, including IM clients, web browsers (not owned by MS), office applications, etc.
And even if you have to install them with Yum, there is the handy groupinstall command (there is a GUI way of doing this) where you can install package groups like "Office & Productivity", "Development Tools" "Development Libraries", etc. Those groups contain most or all you need in each respective category.
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Among my friends, I'm almost the only one who don't have it. Everyone else do (pirated of course), even though they only use it for simple tasks like cropping pictures and the like. Since they know that Photoshop is the preferred image manipulation program among graphics professionals, they won't listen to suggestions to use another application, since "professional means better".
Yes, it is amazing. None of my friends and few that I know of use anything but pirated software at home. They all use the professional version of various packages such as Windows, PS and Office, since they think that "professional = better", but they flat-out refuse to pay for it, since it is "too expensive". "I want it, but I'm not going to pay. Nobody will catch me anyway" is the prevalent opinion. So it is certainly amazing to see people actually buy software for use at home.
This does not apply to me though. I have a legal Windows license, and I don't use PS or Microsoft Office, as I only use Windows for games. I buy the games that like, because I want to support developers that make good games. For the rest of my computing needs, I use Linux and other F/OSS.
They can be detected at much longer ranges, though probably not in another star system. Another example would be a radar. It shows up on the enemy threat warning system long before you start to get echoes from their aircraft.
I guess you never heard about the US patent official that thought that everything that would be invented had already been so in the 19th century, and that all that would be left were small refinements of existing technology. ;)
Energy abundant in the Oort Cloud? In what way? It is pretty far from any stellar energy source, you know. Even to just go to Jupiter and Saturn, which are much closer to the sun than the Oort Cloud, we had to use radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) rather than solar panels just because the intensity of the sunlight was so low.
I've noticed a lot of people in this thread making assertions about legal issue without specifying whether they are lawyers or not (probably not, how many lawyers read Slashdot?). And even if they were lawyers, nobody can say with absolute certainty how a court would decide. I'd take their assertions with several tons of salt.
When they released Services For Unix. This package among others include GCC, which is a well known GPL-licensed program.
I find it quite natural that those hobbyists would want to tinker with the software. That you think that this shouldn't be possible (except for yourself) is quite strange to me. The talk about weaponizing the toys is just the ordinary terrorism scare tactic, so try better next time.
If you want to lock down software, don't use software licensed under the GPLv3. It is certainly not an unintended consequence that you are not allowed to do so. It is one of the main points that the new version addresses that the old one didn't. If you don't like it, go write your own software.
May I ask you a simple question that I have been wondering about for some time? Are you a lawyer? Sometimes you sound like someone with legal training, but sometimes you just sound like you are talking out of your ass (or rather asserting your highest hopes as fact).
I'm sorry, but I don't get the connection (with my post). I use Fedora btw.
Sure it can, but why would you want to? With Bittorrent, more downloaders mean faster downloads, and you can be sure that most Linux users get their distro from the official tracker. Why sit and wait for some lonely seeder in the TPB swarm rather than going to the swarm downloading from the official tracker? It just sounds like an excuse to actually use TPB for the pirated stuff, and when the police knocks on your door, you claim to be downloading Linux. Yeah right!
Sure, but if you were the distributor, would you want to paint a bullseye on your distro with the text "Sue me!" below? They don't want to invite lawsuits, since they cost a lot of money, which could be spent on development instead, so they distribute without the questionable (patent-wise) codecs.
Then I wonder what Apple would say about Songbird. It is extremely similar to iTunes interface-wise.
Ubuntu, a lot more intuitive? Did you even try any recent Red Hat system, especially Fedora 7? It is very similar to what I have seen and read about Ubuntu 7.04, so I don't know what is so much intuitive about Ubuntu.
Horrible in what way? I use it on both my work laptop and my home desktop, and I can't see what you find so horrible. I like Fedora 7, and I think that it is a really nice operating system.
I guess that you don't use Ubuntu then, because it has an equally long (six months) release cycle.
A community that happily piss on other Linux users because they are not using Ubuntu. That is quite a strong turn-off.
It would be one thing if they were few and far between, but every time there is a story about a non-Ubuntu distro, there are a whole lot of comments like
Are they still alive? Why the heck are those users not using Ubuntu instead? Ubuntu FTW! Ubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu!
and
The problem with <distro XXXX> is that it isn't Ubuntu.
The interoperability exemption is probably not tested in court. The Linux distributors don't want to become the test case, so they do not ship with libdvdcss.
Many, if not most, modern Linux distros use Bittorrent as an offficial distribution method. You can simply go to their main trackers rather than going to The Pirate Bay for Linux distros.
So that argument is no longer valid.
It is still a wrapper that converts Win32 API calls to their Linux counterparts. That takes time, although not a whole lot of time.
Why is it hypocritical to run Windows games on Linux?
That you want to run Windows software does not imply that you want to run Microsoft software. Thus, you are not undermining the business models of companies whose software you want to run. Or is the fact that their software only runs on Windows integral to their business models?
That will always require jumping through some hoops. Windows software expects a Windows environment, with a registry, drive letters and the Windows filesystem hierarchy. Running Windows applications will require some conversion, not only from Win32 calls to native calls, but an emulation of the registry and other Windows peculiarities.
That's not a one-time pad. OTP requires truly random pad material, and the pad material can only be used once.
Isn't it still? I haven't heard that Vista can have several virtual desktops, unless you are thinking of the Microsoft powertool.
Not to mention I do not need to spend hours installing extra software since most of what I need is installed when I install the OS, including IM clients, web browsers (not owned by MS), office applications, etc.And even if you have to install them with Yum, there is the handy groupinstall command (there is a GUI way of doing this) where you can install package groups like "Office & Productivity", "Development Tools" "Development Libraries", etc. Those groups contain most or all you need in each respective category.