That's been done for programming languages, Ada anyone? I'm sure it's been done for operating systems as well.
I don't see why leveraging years of open source development work can't be an effective place to start when a solution is desired. That's open source: build and extend. No reason to start from scratch, for "security purposes." Open source has proven a flexible, viable and secure paradigm.
The beauty of something like Linux is that you don't have to include anything that's *not* secure for the functioning of a system. All you have to do is strip it down for your needs. It can be as secure as they want to make it for their particular purpose.
This captures the essence of how we do things in Open Source. Great post.
But it doesn't appear to be the problem they are having. It looks like they threw together this Linux stuff fast. Very little planning went into it. They're probably not prepared at this point in terms of infrastructure and training to do hardware support on another OS. Sure a diagnostic program would be helpful, but so would employee training.
I'm speculating that they might be testing this Linux offering too before they put too much into developing and supporting it. It's going to have to have a business return if Dell goes down that road and they are probably waiting until they can verify that.
I would like to see how Slashdotters, and the Linux community in general, would react if Ubuntu ever decides to "promote interoperability" and "provide indemnification" for its customers by making a deal with Microsoft. Will everyone jump ship? Will the community be able to swallow their pride and concede to continue on with a great distribution? I, for one, use Slackware, so I'm quite certain I will never have this problem. I wonder how many people love software freedom enough to inconvenience themselves, even a little. There's a few of us who have been slogging down the open source road for a long time and I know they would use whatever software they could to promote their ideals. I'm one of those people.
The "Open Source," or maybe I should say, the "Linux User Community" has changed. I don't have a reasonable grasp of what they would do. My guess is they would look the other way. Some of us wouldn't but many would because something like Ubuntu is better than continuing to use Microsoft Windows.
I would like nothing more than for Microsoft to disappear and for software patents to go away, but the reality is we are going to have to live with patents and deal with Microsoft for a long time. I'm somewhat proud of the fact that the "Open Source" development model has been so successful. We are now being recognized by the big players. If there is more interoperability, we will be better positioned in the future to continue to make progress toward penetrating the more mainstream computer market.
I welcome the day when I don't have to fix other people's computers anymore because of some stupid Microsoft Windows bug. I use Windows XP at work and I still average one BSOD a week. I never have to deal with that sort of thing on a Linux computer. I also don't have to fix the same things over and over again. I still have to fix things on Linux, but I only do it once. This is *not* the case with Windows.
These "deals" make the idealist in me cringe, but the pragmatist in me just loves to see it. I'd like to believe that in the end, Microsoft deals or not, user freedom will rule over corporate interests.
There are a lot of engineers here who understand entropy. This can be thought of as the tendency for an event to happen. If there is not enough entropy, that is not enough of a temperature gradient for example, the practical energy will not be available but the theoretical energy could still be high. I would like to know what they could achieve with these low entropy heat sources like the waste heat generated from a computer. If this really could be used, even in small amounts, it would be a major break through. I saw blow torches in those pictures, which to me doesn't represent much of a break through at all. Blow torches produce high heat gradients so lots of things can be done with them to produce useful work.
Just like every technology, things will improve with time. They way things improve fast is with mass adoption. I say it needs to be as cheap as possible. If people adopt it in mass (which is also good) then the technology will follow because there is a market. Cost is everything. People don't behave as though cost is not a factor.
I am looking at converting our house to solar. Why? Not because I'm an environmentalist, but because of cost. It looks like it will take 2 to 3 years to see a return on the investment. It's almost to the point where it make economic sense. I'm not going to change *MY* behavior until it makes sense. And the general populace will also follow this. Space is *not* an issue yet. When it is, it will be addressed by the market too.
Asked by eWEEK why, then, Microsoft had decided to not only release the 235 patent violation number, but also to detail what open-source software was violating them, Gutierrez said the company felt that once it had created a solution to the problem, it was appropriate to talk about the depth of the problem.
This pretty well sums up their strategy of controlling what customers do by any means they can. Notice how they never consider the obvious solution of building good customer solutions and providing good customer service. They've intentionally created the above stated problem so they can charge YOU for a solution.
"Microsoft has no intention or design to limit that arrangement to just Novell, and we have been saying openly that we are open to entering into similar agreements with others. You would expect that to happen over time as customers manifest to their vendors that IP indemnification is an area they care about given the realities of litigation on patents," he said.
I take this to mean they I should be afraid of being sued by Microsoft unless I use a blessed vendor? Only vendors who pay Microsoft and pass the charges down to the customer are okay? I have a solution. Tell me and the rest of the open source community what we're violating so we can avoid it completely. Some of us don't like your customer service and don't like your products. Create a better one and we'll use it! I don't choose software based on who is or is not going to sue me. I base those decisions on quality, cost and how effectively it solves my problem.
Microsoft also did not believe that litigation was an efficient way of dealing with these issues, he said, before adding that, "this does not mean you may not have to go there some day, but it is not a preferred option, and certainly not a preferred option for us. We are hoping that this can be addressed in a different way. Our focus is on solving this through licensing, and that approach should work between the worlds of open source and proprietary software," he said.
I have a problem with this. There is only one solution to this problem and it doesn't involve paying Microsoft for "services" (like not being sued) that I don't want. Instead of empty FUD about litigation and nonsense about licensing (which we already have... and it's working fine... we already have good licensing like the GPL, Apache, BSD, etc.), tell use what's being voilated so we can fix it.
There efforts to "charge" the open source community to use open source software are nothing short of laughable!
Here's my dream configuration:
Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T5600 (2MB Cache/1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Ubuntu Edition version 7.04
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife(TM)(glossy)
MEMORY 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
HARD DRIVE 80GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
OPTICAL DIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
$1,213 Total
This is the same configuration I have for my desktop except my desktop has dual displays running Slackware. I will have to save for a while to afford this. I configured similar systems on http://system76.com/ and they were about $100 to $200 more. I am a backend enterprise Java developer so I need lots of RAM. My deskop was about $400 with reused optical drives and hard disks. That was the processor, RAM, motherboard, and power supply. Unfortunately it looks like I'll be stranded on the desktop for a while until I can afford one these types of systems. I will get one as soon as I can afford it though.
I've seen some posts that suggest do it yourself geeks will not be buying this pre-installed option. I have been using Linux for over 10 years. Let me be one Linux user who:
welcomes *not* having to uninstall Windows immediately.
who welcomes *not* having to gripe that I was forced to pay for something I will never use.
who welcomes *not* having to spend weeks getting everything tweaked and working.
who welcomes the idea of opening the box, pressing the "on" button, and playing around instead of working on my new system!
I'll be ordering one within the next month or two.
News flash! I can't afford to live in California anymore because of oppressive taxation and high housing costs. I can't afford to be a teacher because they make less the garbage men in that state. Our household income is "upper middle class" and there's no way we could afford the modest house I grew up in in California. Last I checked it was almost $700,000. Same house is only $450,000 in Scottsdale, Arizona where we live now.
So I ask this: Why would I want to live in California let alone teach? If I wanted to be chronically poor and practically homeless, I guess it would be okay.
I know it's unavoidable in the business world but, as a programmer, there is nothing worse than multitasking. Other activities are like this too. You need *full* attention to what is going on. Often the task switching time ruins your productivity because complex problems aren't quickly swapped out of brain cache. I like to focus and get it done. I've only had one boss that has really tried, where possible, to make this a reality. Multitasking works well for tasks that don't require much thought, reflection, or detail.
May I add that they use proprietary memory so you have to buy Dell only memory. It will be interesting if people want Linux on a machine like ones Dell puts out now.
This was not always the case. I was a hard care Dell person, but not anymore. There's not chance in hell that I would even consider a Dell now.
People will have to buy it based on the simple fact that the computer is better for the common user than anything else out there. That will be cool if Linux gets to that point and this is successful on hardware like this. That will say a lot about Linux.
Stop and think for a moment people. Do you really want Linux pre-installed from a company that you may not trust 100%? What if they start putting in spyware or something? What if they start packing it with advertisements for "our business partners"??
I'm all for Linux proliferation, but I would rather have the system "Ubuntu Certified" or "Suse Certified". Then we could go out and put distributions we absolutely trust on the systems. Maybe it would even come with a common install disk like Ubuntu or something when you buy the system.
My point is simply that I don't necessarily want pre-installed Linux from a major distributor, unless I *know* no on has tampered with it.
I bought my Fujitsu laptop years ago because it was "Suse Certified". That alone made it a simple, no-brainer choice for me.
Take a look through the posts in this article. There's nothing to "buy". Look at the modding for yourself. Then drill down and look at the people who have been poorly modded. They have good reputations. Look at the content of their posts. They *are* being unfairly modded. I, too, am disgusted that people don't seem to be trying to "win" the debate for their "side" with *ideas*. There's more *feeling* than anything going on here. Feeling is not science.
I'm disgusted with Slashdot modding. Makes me lose faith in the readers here.
Last comment is not directed toward anyone in particular: Debate is *not* about rooting for your "side". Debate is about presenting research and drawing *logical* conclusions based on reputable research and evidence. It's *not* about making unreasonable extrapolations to serve an agenda... whether it be an environmental agenda or an oil company agenda or whatever. Science is based on the *scientific method*. Remember that Slashdotters when you're modding people you don't agree with. Especially remember *that* when you're modding people you do agree with! People you *agree* with but don't scientifically support the view-point (i.e. they are using emotion to argue) should be modded as Flamebait. They are a determent to "your" cause. Let's keep Slashdot academic and reputable.
These are great points but I don't see IBM doing this. They have to see a *return on investment*. *I* think there would be a return on investment because it would open them up to more markets.
They seem to be focusing more effort on enterprise and business. They have never been a very good consumer oriented company and their marketing department should be strung up by their toe-nails.
As of now, IBM seems to be focusing their Linux front on server-side/large systems they can sell to businesses as a product like the blade servers. This doesn't require them to focus on things like drivers for printers. High-end printing manufacturers provide Linux drivers anyway. In the end, drivers will become more available from manufacturers because consumers demand it and they (the hardware manufacturers) see a return on investment.
The one thing that will help this accelerate this is the standardization of the GNU/Linux system. Manufacturers will have a larger/easier target to write drivers to for their hardware. I'm speaking of standard shared libraries, a more static kernel interface that moves in steps instead of all the time, and a standard stack of tools available on all systems. When distros apply this *agreed standard*, adoption will take off. Efforts are underway for this, so I am quite hopeful.
A lot of what you're saying is true, but I don't agree with all of it. I've often wondered what's going to happen when I'm 50 or so. There's a school of thought that says you have to be an architect or a manager once you reach a certain age because you just can't keep coding much past that. I've never heard any "real" reason why, aside from burnout but that's not necessarily age related . I just don't see any reason why people who are older can't be equally if not more effective in this field. It depends one their background and willingness to change when better paradigms come along. I hope that I'm one of those who is able to stay in a it if I choose.
First off. You don't know the first thing about me. I care about a lot of things. I even stated one of them in my comment. I'm also a very unselfish and giving person. I spend a great deal of my personal time trying to educate people on how to stay safe and use computers effectively. I spend time educating people about Linux and other "freedom" oriented alternatives. I participate in discussions with business leaders, volunteer groups, and friends. There's no need for concern about the future of technology. It's going to be fine and I have every reason to be confident that it will continue to go well no matter what Hollywood or Redmond try to do.
Your analogy on N. Korea/China doesn't compute. You equate death, destruction, World War, etc. with DRM, Vista, RIAA, Bush, etc. You want scary. Take a look at the way you prioritize events. How can DRM and evil Microsoft be in the same class as Nuclear fallout? Does this not sound a bit irrational?
Actually, you're flat out *nuts*. There's no other way to describe it.
People who's entire drive is self-centric, lethargic apathy scare the crap out of me.
So, as you can now see, I'm anything but selfish. I guess if lethargic means being a pilot, Software Engineer and Aerospace Engineer... then I guess you're right... I'm Mr. Lethargy. People like myself who worked full time, while going to school full time, while raising a family, while putting my kid in private school, really don't care about much or about anyone but themselves. I can understand why getting 4 hours of sleep a day can seem a bit excessive. I can also understand why volunteering my time to help others could be construed as apathetic.
I would still like to know what the problem is with *not* choosing to watch HD-DVDs? Or deciding that Vista is *not* for me. These are personal choices which I don't have a problem with nor do I care what choices other people make. It's none of my business.
We agree on one thing though... I think taking smoking out of bars is bullshit too. People don't go out to a bar to *better* their health.
I'm endlessly amused by all the passionate arguments about Vista, and DRM, and Internet freedom.
For once, I'm finally starting to see a few people thinking about this objectively. The truth is simple. It only matters what they do in Redmond if you use their stuff. If you don't, Redmond doesn't matter. DRM only matters if you want to watch HD-DVDs or Blue-Ray or whatever. DRM doesn't matter if you don't care.
Far as Internet freedom... I do care about this one. There is only one Internet and I want to make sure it stays neutral and equal. I want this to the extent that I hope all costs are passed down to end users equally and not based on content or anything else. This is what we have now and it's fine. Even with all the file sharers clogging my bandwidth, I still don't want anything to differentiate content with pipe speed. I also don't want e-mail taxed at all... ever!
What I want is for people, government and businesses to leave me alone as much as possible. I don't want "things" invading my life. Vista doesn't invade my life and neither does DRM. So who really gives a shit what they're doing in Redmond or Hollywood? Only people that don't like them and continue to grovel back to them for a fresh beating.
I quit watching TV, except for the news during dinnertime for the last few years. I just couldn't stand all the advertisements. I just got a Tivo last December for my wife. My wife is a nurse and likes to follow 24. She would miss episodes because she was late taking care of patients. Tivo is the best thing ever!
If they go ahead and gather our viewing habits... all the better. Maybe some of our TV content will improve when they see that no one watches most of the stupid crap they put on the air.
Ummmm let me see, I watch History Channel, Fox News, and 24 with my wife. And once in a while, an old, classic movie on TNT. That's about it. Oh and we spend about 40 minutes per hour doing it because I don't watch commercials. I want broadcasters to know that too. So there's nothing I don't want them to know about us, but a lot I do.
Another interesting thing to note. I was a big fan of the MacGyver series when it was on the air years ago. So out of nostalgia, I went and bought season 1 a few months ago (a little cheesier than I remember... but still fun to watch). 47 minutes for each episode! Confirmed my suspicions. Commercials are now 20 to 25 minutes per hour! I thought that I was maybe getting a little impatient in my old age. Not so, there really are a lot more commercials now than there used to be. This pushed TV to the point where it's not worth it to spend the time anymore. Tivo makes it TV worth watching again. We wouldn't need to bother with Tivo if advertisements were "fair" in terms of time (After all, we have a VCR;-). I want the networks to know this too: Viewers don't like being taken advantage of like this. Plus my wife hasn't missed an episode of 24 yet.
Ever heard the notion of history repeating itself? Learn as much as you can so you can avoid making the same mistakes over and over?
You made several historical points that should be lessons about not repeating mistakes in your own post! The decision to go with Microsoft only technologies has real consequences! The dependence on ONE vendor is a real risk and possibly a big mistake by your own admission.
I would like to think that you understand this and that you were knee-jerking a response. We've all done that (or at least I've done it). I think it's worth understanding how we got to were we are. I spend considerable time musing about events trying to understand the big evolving picture. So I care about 1991 and before and after.
No way should this be modded as Flamebait. Maybe he shouldn't have used the "Asshole" subject line, but this should have been modded as Informative, because that's what it is. He provides good experience on what it takes to get users going on Open Source. You people need to stop being so sensitive and start looking at the merits of the information given.
Slashdotters seem to be overly sensitive in general, especially about Trolls and Flamebait.
Well said. Another great thing about bound books is they create more desktop space. I reserve my screens for digital information while I study from a book that doesn't need valuable screen space.
When it comes to movies and music, I don't gain anything like this. I still need a screen, equipment, or a player. Having it on my computer in digital form on the hard drive or dvd drive makes no difference, I still see and use it the same way.
On the advertisements... I quit watching TV for years except for the news now and then. I couldn't stand to waste my time with advertising. TV didn't bring enough value for me to offer my time. Once I got a Tivo, I started to watch again because of the value... I was entertained and not wasting my life watching a sales pitch.
So basically these industries supplying this content need to focus their energy on value and convenience. Not butting heads with the customer. Give them value! Don't get me wrong. I'm not a file sharer and I'm not a copyright infringer, but I do turn my back on nonsense. When I see things being shoved down my throat, I quite naturally resist.
This is funny because it reminds me of the resistance we all felt when the recordable cassette tape came out. Record companies didn't go bankrupt, and they still won't. Same with VCRs... movie companies didn't go bankrupt... same with the CD... labels didn't go bankrupt. Are we seeing a pattern here?
I've gotten to the point where I set my threshold all the way down because people whom I respect are getting modded out. I've also seen some criticism of not only this story, but of the constant bashing of Vista in general getting old and worn out, especially with articles like this. The hyper-sensitivity to flamebaits and trolls is causing improper modding. Many of these points are valid and true... in my opinion. Opinions seem to get overly modded here and I like seeing people's opinions even when I don't agree. I come here to find out what people think and why. Maybe I'm in the wrong place?
I miss the days when Slashdot was modded by a selected few.
So... now... go ahead and mod me "offtopic" for this one... or no wait maybe troll or flamebait would be better because I'm being critical of the Slashdot modding system and the job some members are doing.
I repeat... this is not a Troll and it's not Flamebait. I will concede off-topic, but I'm only responding in general to some of the comments I've seen which are being unfairly modded. Some of my more "senior" friends in the industry tell me to just give up on the Slashdot "cult". I'm getting close... real close. If this gets modded as Flamebait or Troll, I think that will about do it. I'll tolerate Off-Topic.
Microsoft counts license sales. I don't use Windows, except at work. I get counted for a bunch of Windows installs. I have a whole bunch of Windows license keys I've never even used. I use Slackware Linux. I download and I install on several machines, like 6 or so.
So... personally, I count for many Windows installs I don't have and I don't count for many Linux installs that I do have.
I've always thought actual people using Linux is *much* higher than estimates based on people like *myself* alone!
Slashdot Mirror
That's been done for programming languages, Ada anyone? I'm sure it's been done for operating systems as well.
I don't see why leveraging years of open source development work can't be an effective place to start when a solution is desired. That's open source: build and extend. No reason to start from scratch, for "security purposes." Open source has proven a flexible, viable and secure paradigm.
The beauty of something like Linux is that you don't have to include anything that's *not* secure for the functioning of a system. All you have to do is strip it down for your needs. It can be as secure as they want to make it for their particular purpose.
This captures the essence of how we do things in Open Source. Great post.
But it doesn't appear to be the problem they are having. It looks like they threw together this Linux stuff fast. Very little planning went into it. They're probably not prepared at this point in terms of infrastructure and training to do hardware support on another OS. Sure a diagnostic program would be helpful, but so would employee training.
I'm speculating that they might be testing this Linux offering too before they put too much into developing and supporting it. It's going to have to have a business return if Dell goes down that road and they are probably waiting until they can verify that.
I would like to see how Slashdotters, and the Linux community in general, would react if Ubuntu ever decides to "promote interoperability" and "provide indemnification" for its customers by making a deal with Microsoft. Will everyone jump ship? Will the community be able to swallow their pride and concede to continue on with a great distribution? I, for one, use Slackware, so I'm quite certain I will never have this problem. I wonder how many people love software freedom enough to inconvenience themselves, even a little. There's a few of us who have been slogging down the open source road for a long time and I know they would use whatever software they could to promote their ideals. I'm one of those people.
The "Open Source," or maybe I should say, the "Linux User Community" has changed. I don't have a reasonable grasp of what they would do. My guess is they would look the other way. Some of us wouldn't but many would because something like Ubuntu is better than continuing to use Microsoft Windows.
I would like nothing more than for Microsoft to disappear and for software patents to go away, but the reality is we are going to have to live with patents and deal with Microsoft for a long time. I'm somewhat proud of the fact that the "Open Source" development model has been so successful. We are now being recognized by the big players. If there is more interoperability, we will be better positioned in the future to continue to make progress toward penetrating the more mainstream computer market.
I welcome the day when I don't have to fix other people's computers anymore because of some stupid Microsoft Windows bug. I use Windows XP at work and I still average one BSOD a week. I never have to deal with that sort of thing on a Linux computer. I also don't have to fix the same things over and over again. I still have to fix things on Linux, but I only do it once. This is *not* the case with Windows.
These "deals" make the idealist in me cringe, but the pragmatist in me just loves to see it. I'd like to believe that in the end, Microsoft deals or not, user freedom will rule over corporate interests.
There are a lot of engineers here who understand entropy. This can be thought of as the tendency for an event to happen. If there is not enough entropy, that is not enough of a temperature gradient for example, the practical energy will not be available but the theoretical energy could still be high. I would like to know what they could achieve with these low entropy heat sources like the waste heat generated from a computer. If this really could be used, even in small amounts, it would be a major break through. I saw blow torches in those pictures, which to me doesn't represent much of a break through at all. Blow torches produce high heat gradients so lots of things can be done with them to produce useful work.
Just like every technology, things will improve with time. They way things improve fast is with mass adoption. I say it needs to be as cheap as possible. If people adopt it in mass (which is also good) then the technology will follow because there is a market. Cost is everything. People don't behave as though cost is not a factor.
I am looking at converting our house to solar. Why? Not because I'm an environmentalist, but because of cost. It looks like it will take 2 to 3 years to see a return on the investment. It's almost to the point where it make economic sense. I'm not going to change *MY* behavior until it makes sense. And the general populace will also follow this. Space is *not* an issue yet. When it is, it will be addressed by the market too.
This pretty well sums up their strategy of controlling what customers do by any means they can. Notice how they never consider the obvious solution of building good customer solutions and providing good customer service. They've intentionally created the above stated problem so they can charge YOU for a solution.
"Microsoft has no intention or design to limit that arrangement to just Novell, and we have been saying openly that we are open to entering into similar agreements with others. You would expect that to happen over time as customers manifest to their vendors that IP indemnification is an area they care about given the realities of litigation on patents," he said.
I take this to mean they I should be afraid of being sued by Microsoft unless I use a blessed vendor? Only vendors who pay Microsoft and pass the charges down to the customer are okay? I have a solution. Tell me and the rest of the open source community what we're violating so we can avoid it completely. Some of us don't like your customer service and don't like your products. Create a better one and we'll use it! I don't choose software based on who is or is not going to sue me. I base those decisions on quality, cost and how effectively it solves my problem.
Microsoft also did not believe that litigation was an efficient way of dealing with these issues, he said, before adding that, "this does not mean you may not have to go there some day, but it is not a preferred option, and certainly not a preferred option for us. We are hoping that this can be addressed in a different way. Our focus is on solving this through licensing, and that approach should work between the worlds of open source and proprietary software," he said.
I have a problem with this. There is only one solution to this problem and it doesn't involve paying Microsoft for "services" (like not being sued) that I don't want. Instead of empty FUD about litigation and nonsense about licensing (which we already have... and it's working fine... we already have good licensing like the GPL, Apache, BSD, etc.), tell use what's being voilated so we can fix it.
There efforts to "charge" the open source community to use open source software are nothing short of laughable!
Here's my dream configuration:
Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T5600 (2MB Cache/1.83GHz/667MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Ubuntu Edition version 7.04
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife(TM)(glossy)
MEMORY 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
HARD DRIVE 80GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
OPTICAL DIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
$1,213 Total
This is the same configuration I have for my desktop except my desktop has dual displays running Slackware. I will have to save for a while to afford this. I configured similar systems on http://system76.com/ and they were about $100 to $200 more. I am a backend enterprise Java developer so I need lots of RAM. My deskop was about $400 with reused optical drives and hard disks. That was the processor, RAM, motherboard, and power supply. Unfortunately it looks like I'll be stranded on the desktop for a while until I can afford one these types of systems. I will get one as soon as I can afford it though.
I've seen some posts that suggest do it yourself geeks will not be buying this pre-installed option. I have been using Linux for over 10 years. Let me be one Linux user who:
welcomes *not* having to uninstall Windows immediately.
who welcomes *not* having to gripe that I was forced to pay for something I will never use.
who welcomes *not* having to spend weeks getting everything tweaked and working.
who welcomes the idea of opening the box, pressing the "on" button, and playing around instead of working on my new system!
I'll be ordering one within the next month or two.
No one on Slashdot has had to deal with doubleclick in *years*
In case there are some poor unfortunate souls that have had to deal with doubleclick and others, try this:
http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html
It's a Linux and Windows solution. The best and simplest there is.
News flash! I can't afford to live in California anymore because of oppressive taxation and high housing costs. I can't afford to be a teacher because they make less the garbage men in that state. Our household income is "upper middle class" and there's no way we could afford the modest house I grew up in in California. Last I checked it was almost $700,000. Same house is only $450,000 in Scottsdale, Arizona where we live now.
So I ask this: Why would I want to live in California let alone teach? If I wanted to be chronically poor and practically homeless, I guess it would be okay.
The problem is *not* tough to understand!
I know it's unavoidable in the business world but, as a programmer, there is nothing worse than multitasking. Other activities are like this too. You need *full* attention to what is going on. Often the task switching time ruins your productivity because complex problems aren't quickly swapped out of brain cache. I like to focus and get it done. I've only had one boss that has really tried, where possible, to make this a reality. Multitasking works well for tasks that don't require much thought, reflection, or detail.
May I add that they use proprietary memory so you have to buy Dell only memory. It will be interesting if people want Linux on a machine like ones Dell puts out now.
This was not always the case. I was a hard care Dell person, but not anymore. There's not chance in hell that I would even consider a Dell now.
People will have to buy it based on the simple fact that the computer is better for the common user than anything else out there. That will be cool if Linux gets to that point and this is successful on hardware like this. That will say a lot about Linux.
What operating system are you running and what browser?
Stop and think for a moment people. Do you really want Linux pre-installed from a company that you may not trust 100%? What if they start putting in spyware or something? What if they start packing it with advertisements for "our business partners"??
I'm all for Linux proliferation, but I would rather have the system "Ubuntu Certified" or "Suse Certified". Then we could go out and put distributions we absolutely trust on the systems. Maybe it would even come with a common install disk like Ubuntu or something when you buy the system.
My point is simply that I don't necessarily want pre-installed Linux from a major distributor, unless I *know* no on has tampered with it.
I bought my Fujitsu laptop years ago because it was "Suse Certified". That alone made it a simple, no-brainer choice for me.
Take a look through the posts in this article. There's nothing to "buy". Look at the modding for yourself. Then drill down and look at the people who have been poorly modded. They have good reputations. Look at the content of their posts. They *are* being unfairly modded. I, too, am disgusted that people don't seem to be trying to "win" the debate for their "side" with *ideas*. There's more *feeling* than anything going on here. Feeling is not science.
I'm disgusted with Slashdot modding. Makes me lose faith in the readers here.
Last comment is not directed toward anyone in particular: Debate is *not* about rooting for your "side". Debate is about presenting research and drawing *logical* conclusions based on reputable research and evidence. It's *not* about making unreasonable extrapolations to serve an agenda... whether it be an environmental agenda or an oil company agenda or whatever. Science is based on the *scientific method*. Remember that Slashdotters when you're modding people you don't agree with. Especially remember *that* when you're modding people you do agree with! People you *agree* with but don't scientifically support the view-point (i.e. they are using emotion to argue) should be modded as Flamebait. They are a determent to "your" cause. Let's keep Slashdot academic and reputable.
These are great points but I don't see IBM doing this. They have to see a *return on investment*. *I* think there would be a return on investment because it would open them up to more markets.
They seem to be focusing more effort on enterprise and business. They have never been a very good consumer oriented company and their marketing department should be strung up by their toe-nails.
As of now, IBM seems to be focusing their Linux front on server-side/large systems they can sell to businesses as a product like the blade servers. This doesn't require them to focus on things like drivers for printers. High-end printing manufacturers provide Linux drivers anyway. In the end, drivers will become more available from manufacturers because consumers demand it and they (the hardware manufacturers) see a return on investment.
The one thing that will help this accelerate this is the standardization of the GNU/Linux system. Manufacturers will have a larger/easier target to write drivers to for their hardware. I'm speaking of standard shared libraries, a more static kernel interface that moves in steps instead of all the time, and a standard stack of tools available on all systems. When distros apply this *agreed standard*, adoption will take off. Efforts are underway for this, so I am quite hopeful.
A lot of what you're saying is true, but I don't agree with all of it. I've often wondered what's going to happen when I'm 50 or so. There's a school of thought that says you have to be an architect or a manager once you reach a certain age because you just can't keep coding much past that. I've never heard any "real" reason why, aside from burnout but that's not necessarily age related . I just don't see any reason why people who are older can't be equally if not more effective in this field. It depends one their background and willingness to change when better paradigms come along. I hope that I'm one of those who is able to stay in a it if I choose.
First off. You don't know the first thing about me. I care about a lot of things. I even stated one of them in my comment. I'm also a very unselfish and giving person. I spend a great deal of my personal time trying to educate people on how to stay safe and use computers effectively. I spend time educating people about Linux and other "freedom" oriented alternatives. I participate in discussions with business leaders, volunteer groups, and friends. There's no need for concern about the future of technology. It's going to be fine and I have every reason to be confident that it will continue to go well no matter what Hollywood or Redmond try to do.
Your analogy on N. Korea/China doesn't compute. You equate death, destruction, World War, etc. with DRM, Vista, RIAA, Bush, etc. You want scary. Take a look at the way you prioritize events. How can DRM and evil Microsoft be in the same class as Nuclear fallout? Does this not sound a bit irrational?
Actually, you're flat out *nuts*. There's no other way to describe it.
People who's entire drive is self-centric, lethargic apathy scare the crap out of me.So, as you can now see, I'm anything but selfish. I guess if lethargic means being a pilot, Software Engineer and Aerospace Engineer... then I guess you're right... I'm Mr. Lethargy. People like myself who worked full time, while going to school full time, while raising a family, while putting my kid in private school, really don't care about much or about anyone but themselves. I can understand why getting 4 hours of sleep a day can seem a bit excessive. I can also understand why volunteering my time to help others could be construed as apathetic.
I would still like to know what the problem is with *not* choosing to watch HD-DVDs? Or deciding that Vista is *not* for me. These are personal choices which I don't have a problem with nor do I care what choices other people make. It's none of my business.
We agree on one thing though... I think taking smoking out of bars is bullshit too. People don't go out to a bar to *better* their health.
I'm endlessly amused by all the passionate arguments about Vista, and DRM, and Internet freedom.
For once, I'm finally starting to see a few people thinking about this objectively. The truth is simple. It only matters what they do in Redmond if you use their stuff. If you don't, Redmond doesn't matter. DRM only matters if you want to watch HD-DVDs or Blue-Ray or whatever. DRM doesn't matter if you don't care.
Far as Internet freedom... I do care about this one. There is only one Internet and I want to make sure it stays neutral and equal. I want this to the extent that I hope all costs are passed down to end users equally and not based on content or anything else. This is what we have now and it's fine. Even with all the file sharers clogging my bandwidth, I still don't want anything to differentiate content with pipe speed. I also don't want e-mail taxed at all... ever!
What I want is for people, government and businesses to leave me alone as much as possible. I don't want "things" invading my life. Vista doesn't invade my life and neither does DRM. So who really gives a shit what they're doing in Redmond or Hollywood? Only people that don't like them and continue to grovel back to them for a fresh beating.
I quit watching TV, except for the news during dinnertime for the last few years. I just couldn't stand all the advertisements. I just got a Tivo last December for my wife. My wife is a nurse and likes to follow 24. She would miss episodes because she was late taking care of patients. Tivo is the best thing ever!
If they go ahead and gather our viewing habits... all the better. Maybe some of our TV content will improve when they see that no one watches most of the stupid crap they put on the air.
Ummmm let me see, I watch History Channel, Fox News, and 24 with my wife. And once in a while, an old, classic movie on TNT. That's about it. Oh and we spend about 40 minutes per hour doing it because I don't watch commercials. I want broadcasters to know that too. So there's nothing I don't want them to know about us, but a lot I do.
Another interesting thing to note. I was a big fan of the MacGyver series when it was on the air years ago. So out of nostalgia, I went and bought season 1 a few months ago (a little cheesier than I remember... but still fun to watch). 47 minutes for each episode! Confirmed my suspicions. Commercials are now 20 to 25 minutes per hour! I thought that I was maybe getting a little impatient in my old age. Not so, there really are a lot more commercials now than there used to be. This pushed TV to the point where it's not worth it to spend the time anymore. Tivo makes it TV worth watching again. We wouldn't need to bother with Tivo if advertisements were "fair" in terms of time (After all, we have a VCR;-). I want the networks to know this too: Viewers don't like being taken advantage of like this. Plus my wife hasn't missed an episode of 24 yet.
Go Tivo!
I'll tell you why we should care!
Ever heard the notion of history repeating itself? Learn as much as you can so you can avoid making the same mistakes over and over?
You made several historical points that should be lessons about not repeating mistakes in your own post! The decision to go with Microsoft only technologies has real consequences! The dependence on ONE vendor is a real risk and possibly a big mistake by your own admission.
I would like to think that you understand this and that you were knee-jerking a response. We've all done that (or at least I've done it). I think it's worth understanding how we got to were we are. I spend considerable time musing about events trying to understand the big evolving picture. So I care about 1991 and before and after.
No way should this be modded as Flamebait. Maybe he shouldn't have used the "Asshole" subject line, but this should have been modded as Informative, because that's what it is. He provides good experience on what it takes to get users going on Open Source. You people need to stop being so sensitive and start looking at the merits of the information given.
Slashdotters seem to be overly sensitive in general, especially about Trolls and Flamebait.
Well said. Another great thing about bound books is they create more desktop space. I reserve my screens for digital information while I study from a book that doesn't need valuable screen space.
When it comes to movies and music, I don't gain anything like this. I still need a screen, equipment, or a player. Having it on my computer in digital form on the hard drive or dvd drive makes no difference, I still see and use it the same way.
On the advertisements... I quit watching TV for years except for the news now and then. I couldn't stand to waste my time with advertising. TV didn't bring enough value for me to offer my time. Once I got a Tivo, I started to watch again because of the value... I was entertained and not wasting my life watching a sales pitch.
So basically these industries supplying this content need to focus their energy on value and convenience. Not butting heads with the customer. Give them value! Don't get me wrong. I'm not a file sharer and I'm not a copyright infringer, but I do turn my back on nonsense. When I see things being shoved down my throat, I quite naturally resist.
This is funny because it reminds me of the resistance we all felt when the recordable cassette tape came out. Record companies didn't go bankrupt, and they still won't. Same with VCRs... movie companies didn't go bankrupt... same with the CD... labels didn't go bankrupt. Are we seeing a pattern here?
I've gotten to the point where I set my threshold all the way down because people whom I respect are getting modded out. I've also seen some criticism of not only this story, but of the constant bashing of Vista in general getting old and worn out, especially with articles like this. The hyper-sensitivity to flamebaits and trolls is causing improper modding. Many of these points are valid and true... in my opinion. Opinions seem to get overly modded here and I like seeing people's opinions even when I don't agree. I come here to find out what people think and why. Maybe I'm in the wrong place?
I miss the days when Slashdot was modded by a selected few.
So... now... go ahead and mod me "offtopic" for this one... or no wait maybe troll or flamebait would be better because I'm being critical of the Slashdot modding system and the job some members are doing.
I repeat... this is not a Troll and it's not Flamebait. I will concede off-topic, but I'm only responding in general to some of the comments I've seen which are being unfairly modded. Some of my more "senior" friends in the industry tell me to just give up on the Slashdot "cult". I'm getting close... real close. If this gets modded as Flamebait or Troll, I think that will about do it. I'll tolerate Off-Topic.
Microsoft counts license sales. I don't use Windows, except at work. I get counted for a bunch of Windows installs. I have a whole bunch of Windows license keys I've never even used. I use Slackware Linux. I download and I install on several machines, like 6 or so.
So... personally, I count for many Windows installs I don't have and I don't count for many Linux installs that I do have.
I've always thought actual people using Linux is *much* higher than estimates based on people like *myself* alone!