Aren't your concerns covered by these parts of the GNU GPL?
For the developers' and authors' protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this free software.
And also...
15. Disclaimer of Warranty.
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
16. Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
17. Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program in return for a fee.
I like both too. Bioshock is a good experience for me since I haven't enjoyed an FPS since Doom and Doom II... Bioshock takes it back to the roots of what made an FPS a lot of fun for me, the killing in a new and thrilling environment. You don't have to worry about vehicles, you get most things available to you within the first couple of hours of gameplay, and the rest of the game is spent enjoying the level structure, interesting enemy dynamics and situations unique to this game, an interesting ability upgrade system, and multiple ways to play through the same level. Every style of gameplay is accomodated, so everyone can enjoy the game no matter how they play (RE4 does this too I believe). To me I think part of this often overlooked aspect is due to the fact that there is no multiplayer so they didn't have to balance things for player vs player.
Metroid Prime 3 is an excellent style of game (find upgrades, access new areas, defeat unique and interesting boss characters) taken to a new level with interesting architecture to move around in, especially because jumping and manouvering through the levels in various ways is a focus, unlike other FPSes, which makes it interesting to traverse the levels. The enemies are somewhat dumb but there're lots of them and they're very unique, often not even humanoid. Plus, like everyone says, the controls.
Not by much... all it does is instead of solidifying their OS, they're putting you in charge of approving every interaction between user software/system software. They're putting up warnings in front of everything safe or not in order to make it your fault when something bad happens. The OS should be in charge of this, but MS is covering their ass by leaving it up to you because if you "allow" something that exploits the OS (even if it gave no indication of doing so prior), then it's your fault.
"Half bad" is not the same as "not bad". Stop pretending it is.
Maybe what google are trying to do is replace the annoying flash ads that are currently on the web with these versions. I would certainly find them less annoying. If they want to make their ads less annoying so people stop wanting to use adblockers, that's fine with me. I can still block them if I want, but if I'm surfing on a PC where I can't install any software, I'd much rather be browsing a site with google-spec'd flash ads rather than normal annoying ones.
I've got a Cowon A2 also, and I'll second your thingy that says you need more space. I've got 30GB on the A2, and though I like to watch movies, I only keep 2 or 3 episodes of a show on there (about 200MB really) because the rest is filled up with my music. I own around 400 CDs and I want to have instant access to all of them, I really don't know what song will strike my fancy at any time.
And what makes owning 400 CDs actually worth it? Being able to listen to your own custom radio station by basically pointing the browser to the root directory and playing everything on shuffle. Otherwise who knows when I could get around to listening to my old CDs? This way I can turn it on random and hear a mix of new and old songs, without having to think "What were songs I really used to like listening to" and digging through my old albums to find each one. I may not even realize that some old songs may take on a new meaning and I'll like ones now that I didn't really used to linger on.
All that said, I would rather have a flash player as well because then I could be a little rougher with it and not have to worry. Something with no moving parts (touch screen even, so no buttons) would be perfect for carrying in your pocket and forgetting about it, but still being able to whip it out for a video should you be bored and have the chance to stare at something for a while.
This is very good, I'm sure a lot of users would like to have the choice of selecting these in a graphical mode, which with they may be more familiar. Many users familiar with Windows/OSX will automatically be more familiar with Ubuntu because of this feature. It's important to have as many options available on CLI and GUI at the same time.
I remember that back in the day YaST (SuSE's Yet Another Setup Tool) used to be incredibly handy because the CLI and GUI for the tool, which controlled almost all configurable options of the Linux distro, would behave almost exactly the same. The CLI used curses for display, and I believe the GUI was QT-based. They functioned pretty much identically. Personally, I have no problem just editing a text file. But, if you are a linux newbie and you poke around in the GUI and mess something up, then suddenly you can't start X, you feel a little bit safer knowing that there's a tool you can use to revert your settings that works exactly the same on the CLI as it does in the GUI, so you can access the program in almost any situation, even from a remote terminal.
I'm sure that by getting into these deals, MS was trying to convince other companies that they would have an advantage by getting the rights to use MS's patents. The real gain was for MS, since now all their products are covered by everyone else's patents thanks to the agreements. MS gets to use everyone's patents, everyone gets to use MS's patents, but they don't enter into an agreement with each other to cross-license their patents (i.e. Novell and Xandros don't get to use each others' patents, but MS uses both of theirs, MS's advantage), so really MS just funnels all the rights to themselves, and everyone else is left to bicker amongst each other. MS just wants to be a superset of everything else. Of course even everyone pools their patents together, it just raises the bar for small companies that want to get into the game, or any independents.
He never advocated disrespect for anyone. He asked people to try to understand their perspective so as to see what causes their hatred, and to see how not to succumb to the same thing by retaliation against them. He asked people to realize that everyone needs to learn from each other in order to get along. He taught that anger and hatred do not fuel peace and understanding.
Comedy, mocking, satire, derision, etc. all have their place, but they look better coming from the peanut gallery than they do from the OSS community, who turns around and demands respect for their efforts. We should at least be as respectful to everyone as we want them to be respectful towards us.
We don't have to do the mocking, why take the easy target? Anyone else can (and will, easily without our help) do that. Do you doubt it? All we have to do is put our cards down, our money where our mouth is, etc, and everyone else will be able to see who's bluffing and who isn't.
Has anyone who has ever sold a product earned your respect? Well, probably, but the fact is, almost all players in all markets don't earn peoples' respects to get sales. They're going to be around anyway. Why make ourselves look stupid in any way because of that? Just go about our business and make our empire stronger. Learn from others where we can. Get in where you fit in. Be an opportunist, but don't sacrifice our goals and ideals. None of that has to do with MS, so don't worry about them. Let's just get what we can from them to make us stronger. Don't you think that's what they're doing to everyone else? But we don't have to make ourselves look stupid doing it.
There are reasons to respect Microsoft, but it's not because of their marketing or the quality of their software.
One should respect MS as a relationship with MS could be compared to a relationship with any other vendor.
A typical non-OSS user won't exactly be enchanted if they see the OSS community treating another company like degenerates. They don't know the difference between MS and any other company, all they see is OSS devs/users treating a company like crap. If you take a one-sided view, that makes OSS devs/users look bad. That's probably the only view they'll be taking since they haven't worshipped at the church of FLOSS.
If you look at the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King encouraged all to be non-violent, not carry weapons, and not give any excuse for others to even mistake them for wanting to possibly even slightly exhibit any negative behaviour or thoughts. That's to take any power away from the enemy, as they can't say anything if there's nothing for them to point out.
Another reason is that truth can come from anywhere, and a good argument will stand no matter who makes it. If we simply expect everything out of MS to be garbage, then we will also miss any jewels, and that's just hurting ourselves.
Anyway look. Bottom line is to be better than MS, we can't let ourselves go by saying "Oh, well, MS fucks up, we can too, just not as bad." That's pretty asinine. Nope. To be better than MS, we have to actually be better than them, not stoop just as low as them.
I bought one 'cause way back they were saying the PS3 was going to have the next Katamari Damacy game, and the Wii one was cancelled. I had no choice but to get one! Yes, Katamari was going to be on 360, but I already didn't want one of those. Plus, on 360, they were saying it would be a download through Live! arcade, and I know I wanted to own a hard copy of the game. The PS3 also had Virtua Fighter 5 as an exclusive (at the time there was no sign it would come out on any other console) so I had to buy that. I'm a big VF fan. The Wipeout series is also tied to the PlayStation platform, and I'm a big fan of that. I also thought that even if the PS3 wouldn't have a ton of exclusives, it would get all of the niche games the way the PS2 did, because I assumed it would sell better than the 360. All in all, I think the PS3 complements my Wii well for all of the games that won't really be appearing on the Wii, and for the fact that I can play Blu-ray movies. Really does look night/day compared to DVDs, if only just for the increase in the preserved colour range of the original video. Even upscaled DVD looks like VHS in comparison, because of colours alone. Watching a DVD looks like playing Quake 2.... everything looks like mud.
Yeah, that's all the people that are the most passionate about GNU/Linux so they're actually arguing that much because they care. What about all the people who just want to use the software, won't all that arguing put them off, and think of it as a negative reflection on the OSS development model? It's FUD to the outsiders, either way you look at it, and can't be brushed aside by everyone. Just because we know better doesn't mean everyone does. How do we show them what's right?
Check out last year's comment I made on the subject. The whole thing was done just to make us have arguments. Can we learn from history, so as not to repeat it?
Divide and conquer is an age old tactic. Open Source is meant to help us divide and yet still cooperate to use our separate works together, but MS is trying to get us to divide and argue amongst each other so that we no longer cooperate but stand divided on what MS is trying to make into an issue. Come on guys, MS walks in, saying "OK, half you guys get over here, and half you guys get over there because we say so. Hey hey hey, ubuntu guys, check out the way those Novell guys are looking at you...." etc. And it's like we're falling for it.
It all boils down to the fact that the software is not "under" any kind of agreement except the GNU GPL. We all know the patents are crap otherwise they would be disclosed. We all know patents do not even matter, otherwise MS (and any others who would want to squeeze GNU/Linux for some cash) would have made their move by now. All they're doing is prodding us and watching which way we squirm. Why should we squirm? Just get back to using FLOSS, nothing's changed. Except that maybe we're a lot bigger now and they're more scared.
People need to grow some balls when it comes to these situations. They're afraid of offending the person on the other end, they think they're suggesting that they're liars or frauds. Really, it's just a precaution for your own ass (you'll get fired) and your business (their normal operations can't be disrupted by random people).
Then again, administrators, executives, etc need to be more patient and understanding when what they say is challenged. They can't get an attitude or it will cause people to react by defending their character; i.e. if a less confident individual is accused of incompetence, audacity, or whatever for challenging another, then they will be more likely to feel that it is audacious or incompetent to verify a workplace activity.
Using social engineering to get people to give up their passwords? People were already socially engineered to be susceptible, and afraid. Places of businesses need to have employees treat each other with respect and make it clear to the employees that they have a right to challenge the legitimacy of any workplace situation.
Well, maybe it doesn't need to be compatible, but he's right: Apps are important. So if not compatible, Linux needs to have alternatives. By that I mean REAL alternatives, not stuff that you have to argue about.
I've used Open Office for real work, such as inventory/profit calculators, billing, invoice templates, etc.
I'm like that at home. I haven't even looked at Linux for home because I know that, regardless of any other problems, it isn't usable because it doesn't support the software I want.
So, you want alternatives, you just don't want to have to use them ever. I guess you just prefer Windows for no reason that can be applied to others, it's just personal preference.
Also it needs to either be that app, or one that is just as good. You can't start demanding compromise. You can't tell a professional graphics artist that GIMP should be "good enough" and they "don't need what Photoshop has." That's lying to them and to yourself. You can't expect them to make a switch unless you are offering something that's at least as good, and probably better.
Professionals? I thought you were talking about home desktop use. Oh well, you have to make whatever "evidence" you can grab at fit the argument, I guess. Even the products Microsoft makes, Office, Outlook, IE, don't work the same on Mac as on Windows, and don't support the same features, formats, or macros. They can read each others' files but not perfectly, and macros aren't 100% compatible, just like OpenOffice. Are they lying? People still use them and switch between them, I guess that learning something different isn't a problem. Maybe the solution is just to call OpenOffice Microsoft Office? I guess nobody knows about Crossover? StarOffice, or Cinepaint either? Nobody is looking at applications professionals use in production, or at commercial Linux applications?
So really, it is a big problem Linux faces right now. In so many settings, it simply doesn't offer the apps that people need and thus can't be considered, regardless of other merits. One real way to solve this would be total Windows compatibility.
Oh noes, the Mac is not 100% Windows compatible either, I guess Apple should give up. Seems to me the only big problem Linux faces right now is stigma that can be gleaned from posts such as yours.
Microsoft doesn't have to have anything to do with Linux for me to use it, so regardless of what they do I'm not even affected. That's the beauty of using Linux!
A company is spending lots of money in order to tell people about their product, but when they pull in a willing audience who actually pays attention to the advertisement, the audience still has no clue as to what is being talked about? They're spending time, energy, money, (all valuable), in actually convincing the public that, as a company, they don't even know how to do business? How does this instill confidence in the customer OR the investor?
Re:Am I the only one who just doesn't care about H
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Yeah. I felt that way too. But I put Pirates of the Caribbean on in HD and flipped between that and an upscaled DVD, and you can tell the difference right away. Even besides the fact that it's over 6x the pixel definition of DVD, the colors are more defined, it's like it preserves much more of the spectrum over DVD. DVDs look like common internet JPGs compared to HD videos. HD formats are a lot less blocky than DVDs as well, and although it's still noticable in extreme cases (where every single frame is different), it's not nearly as prevalant on DVDs. When you're watching a DVD, you know it because you can see artifacting everywhere, almost in every scene. On HD formats it's really not noticable.
Taking all that into consideration, and when you can see some blu-ray discs on the shelves for $9 and $19 already, then why are you paying the same amount for the DVD? I saw "Happy Feet" for ~ $25 at some stores but I got it on blu-ray for $14. I won't be re-buying a whole lot of my collection, but I will for my favorites and just trade in the DVD versions for some other DVDs at the local video store I want to see. For new movies, if I see a blu-ray version I'll definitely pick them up.
In certain school districts, the BSA has audited or threatened to audit them for compliance. Since then, any software that is not distributed with a license or does not have some sort of license will be feared as being considered pirated software. A lot of school IT staff or administration have no concept of FOSS and only understand commercial proprietary software licenses. Teachers are also afraid of viruses, and refuse for anyone to bring outside copied software that isn't on an "original disc" (i.e. something that was professionally pressed).
On a tangent, having software that students can easily make copies of and take home with them to learn or do homework with could be benficial. The same could be said of "open books", books aimed at schools and students that knowledgable people collaborate on. If students could freely copy their learning materials, then learning would be less restricted to those with less money.
Good post, and I think that you are right, people could be more diplomatic in these situations. But we also have to realize that not everyone is in the best mood all of the time, and even though they may have their outbursts, we should be happy that in the end the right decision gets made and that the focus doesn't remain on who blames who for what. Fighting happens all the time, it's just important not to let it get the best of us, and make us keep adding to it. It's more important for us to realize why we should stop fighting rather than bothering to resolve a fight that's gotten ridiculous already (which could be pointless, it's important for people to learn how to drop things that aren't important), or rather than just making the fight bigger.
Yeah but Canada really started churning them out when CSI + clones started hitting TV. I like the other series you're talking about too, but this is where we've BEEN. I'm talking about where we're headed. Canada is becoming more and more americanized.
You're right, I don't know everything about French Canadian programming, most stuff I've watched in the French language is from France, or has been in the theatres. On TV, I don't really watch french/quebec programming. Then again, on TV, I don't watch a lot of english/Canadian programming. Most of what I'm talking about can be narrowed down to prime time popular culture, because this is what is reaching the youths. I'm not talking about adults with experienced perspectives who know better from watching and learning about Canada over the last century and beginning of this one. What I'm talking about is the culture that we're choosing to aim at our young bright next leaders. That is what's so troubling about it. Yes, many people watch French programming, but undoubtedly more watch English programming, because it is translated into French and also because the amount of French programming is not as much as the amount of English + English translated programming. If you're watching everything altogether, it wouldn't be distributed evenly.
Now if only Canada wouldn't just be mimicing USA whenever it makes new shows. USA has tons of CSI drama? Let's make our own! USA is making tons of reality shows? Let's have our own! USA has tabloid-formatted "entertainment news" shows? Now Canada does too!
It's funny, in Canada we used to think ourselves pretty smart for what we did in our own right, but now all we seem to do is copy USA. Sure, you can cite some other stale CBC Canada-only shows that aren't really entertaining at all... and I won't care.
Before the CRTC (Canada's FCC) started mandating Canadian content, we used to get a mix of the best of USA, Europe, Japan, and other countries' TV shows, and then throw in whatever content we produced that would be worthy of sitting alongside other countries' best offerings. We used to cooperate a lot with american shows and they'd have canadian guest stars and our shows would have american guest stars (still do, but not as much). Now that Canadian content has come out in full force, turns out that really it's nothing more than repackaged american crap.
I like South Park, but making our own lame forgery and putting that on the air is pretty pathetic. Why couldn't we just air Reboot, or something just as original and creative? Why afraid of competing with the best of other countries' television? If we put our own industries first by default, then they will stagnate and we will never be able to export quality stuff. We instead just end up making poor copies, because they'll be preferred by broadcasters by default. We're shooting ourselves in the foot.
As stated by many on Slashdot before, culture is a living breathing thing, and the world is getting closer together. By trying to craft its own 'identity', Canada is really ignoring what its citizens would naturally adopt and instead creating some artifical culture that we're all supposed to know and follow. It doesn't really work that way. Instead we may just end up getting stupider because of it. We'll be too busy with our eyes on our own plate to see what anyone else is trying.
That's funny because if you look in the early screens and graphics for that game that were put out in previews before its release, you will notice that after a certain point they started making her more "xtreme", they gave her green lipstick, made her slimmer, etc...
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Aren't your concerns covered by these parts of the GNU GPL?
For the developers' and authors' protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this free software.
And also...
15. Disclaimer of Warranty.
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
16. Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
17. Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program in return for a fee.
I like both too. Bioshock is a good experience for me since I haven't enjoyed an FPS since Doom and Doom II... Bioshock takes it back to the roots of what made an FPS a lot of fun for me, the killing in a new and thrilling environment. You don't have to worry about vehicles, you get most things available to you within the first couple of hours of gameplay, and the rest of the game is spent enjoying the level structure, interesting enemy dynamics and situations unique to this game, an interesting ability upgrade system, and multiple ways to play through the same level. Every style of gameplay is accomodated, so everyone can enjoy the game no matter how they play (RE4 does this too I believe). To me I think part of this often overlooked aspect is due to the fact that there is no multiplayer so they didn't have to balance things for player vs player.
Metroid Prime 3 is an excellent style of game (find upgrades, access new areas, defeat unique and interesting boss characters) taken to a new level with interesting architecture to move around in, especially because jumping and manouvering through the levels in various ways is a focus, unlike other FPSes, which makes it interesting to traverse the levels. The enemies are somewhat dumb but there're lots of them and they're very unique, often not even humanoid. Plus, like everyone says, the controls.
They're both very worth playing.
UAC is [...] better than what they had before
Not by much... all it does is instead of solidifying their OS, they're putting you in charge of approving every interaction between user software/system software. They're putting up warnings in front of everything safe or not in order to make it your fault when something bad happens. The OS should be in charge of this, but MS is covering their ass by leaving it up to you because if you "allow" something that exploits the OS (even if it gave no indication of doing so prior), then it's your fault.
"Half bad" is not the same as "not bad". Stop pretending it is.
Maybe what google are trying to do is replace the annoying flash ads that are currently on the web with these versions. I would certainly find them less annoying. If they want to make their ads less annoying so people stop wanting to use adblockers, that's fine with me. I can still block them if I want, but if I'm surfing on a PC where I can't install any software, I'd much rather be browsing a site with google-spec'd flash ads rather than normal annoying ones.
I've got a Cowon A2 also, and I'll second your thingy that says you need more space. I've got 30GB on the A2, and though I like to watch movies, I only keep 2 or 3 episodes of a show on there (about 200MB really) because the rest is filled up with my music. I own around 400 CDs and I want to have instant access to all of them, I really don't know what song will strike my fancy at any time.
And what makes owning 400 CDs actually worth it? Being able to listen to your own custom radio station by basically pointing the browser to the root directory and playing everything on shuffle. Otherwise who knows when I could get around to listening to my old CDs? This way I can turn it on random and hear a mix of new and old songs, without having to think "What were songs I really used to like listening to" and digging through my old albums to find each one. I may not even realize that some old songs may take on a new meaning and I'll like ones now that I didn't really used to linger on.
All that said, I would rather have a flash player as well because then I could be a little rougher with it and not have to worry. Something with no moving parts (touch screen even, so no buttons) would be perfect for carrying in your pocket and forgetting about it, but still being able to whip it out for a video should you be bored and have the chance to stare at something for a while.
This is very good, I'm sure a lot of users would like to have the choice of selecting these in a graphical mode, which with they may be more familiar. Many users familiar with Windows/OSX will automatically be more familiar with Ubuntu because of this feature. It's important to have as many options available on CLI and GUI at the same time.
I remember that back in the day YaST (SuSE's Yet Another Setup Tool) used to be incredibly handy because the CLI and GUI for the tool, which controlled almost all configurable options of the Linux distro, would behave almost exactly the same. The CLI used curses for display, and I believe the GUI was QT-based. They functioned pretty much identically. Personally, I have no problem just editing a text file. But, if you are a linux newbie and you poke around in the GUI and mess something up, then suddenly you can't start X, you feel a little bit safer knowing that there's a tool you can use to revert your settings that works exactly the same on the CLI as it does in the GUI, so you can access the program in almost any situation, even from a remote terminal.
I'm sure that by getting into these deals, MS was trying to convince other companies that they would have an advantage by getting the rights to use MS's patents. The real gain was for MS, since now all their products are covered by everyone else's patents thanks to the agreements. MS gets to use everyone's patents, everyone gets to use MS's patents, but they don't enter into an agreement with each other to cross-license their patents (i.e. Novell and Xandros don't get to use each others' patents, but MS uses both of theirs, MS's advantage), so really MS just funnels all the rights to themselves, and everyone else is left to bicker amongst each other. MS just wants to be a superset of everything else. Of course even everyone pools their patents together, it just raises the bar for small companies that want to get into the game, or any independents.
He never advocated disrespect for anyone. He asked people to try to understand their perspective so as to see what causes their hatred, and to see how not to succumb to the same thing by retaliation against them. He asked people to realize that everyone needs to learn from each other in order to get along. He taught that anger and hatred do not fuel peace and understanding.
Comedy, mocking, satire, derision, etc. all have their place, but they look better coming from the peanut gallery than they do from the OSS community, who turns around and demands respect for their efforts. We should at least be as respectful to everyone as we want them to be respectful towards us.
We don't have to do the mocking, why take the easy target? Anyone else can (and will, easily without our help) do that. Do you doubt it? All we have to do is put our cards down, our money where our mouth is, etc, and everyone else will be able to see who's bluffing and who isn't.
Has anyone who has ever sold a product earned your respect? Well, probably, but the fact is, almost all players in all markets don't earn peoples' respects to get sales. They're going to be around anyway. Why make ourselves look stupid in any way because of that? Just go about our business and make our empire stronger. Learn from others where we can. Get in where you fit in. Be an opportunist, but don't sacrifice our goals and ideals. None of that has to do with MS, so don't worry about them. Let's just get what we can from them to make us stronger. Don't you think that's what they're doing to everyone else? But we don't have to make ourselves look stupid doing it.
There are reasons to respect Microsoft, but it's not because of their marketing or the quality of their software.
One should respect MS as a relationship with MS could be compared to a relationship with any other vendor.
A typical non-OSS user won't exactly be enchanted if they see the OSS community treating another company like degenerates. They don't know the difference between MS and any other company, all they see is OSS devs/users treating a company like crap. If you take a one-sided view, that makes OSS devs/users look bad. That's probably the only view they'll be taking since they haven't worshipped at the church of FLOSS.
If you look at the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King encouraged all to be non-violent, not carry weapons, and not give any excuse for others to even mistake them for wanting to possibly even slightly exhibit any negative behaviour or thoughts. That's to take any power away from the enemy, as they can't say anything if there's nothing for them to point out.
Another reason is that truth can come from anywhere, and a good argument will stand no matter who makes it. If we simply expect everything out of MS to be garbage, then we will also miss any jewels, and that's just hurting ourselves.
Anyway look. Bottom line is to be better than MS, we can't let ourselves go by saying "Oh, well, MS fucks up, we can too, just not as bad." That's pretty asinine. Nope. To be better than MS, we have to actually be better than them, not stoop just as low as them.
I bought one 'cause way back they were saying the PS3 was going to have the next Katamari Damacy game, and the Wii one was cancelled. I had no choice but to get one! Yes, Katamari was going to be on 360, but I already didn't want one of those. Plus, on 360, they were saying it would be a download through Live! arcade, and I know I wanted to own a hard copy of the game. The PS3 also had Virtua Fighter 5 as an exclusive (at the time there was no sign it would come out on any other console) so I had to buy that. I'm a big VF fan. The Wipeout series is also tied to the PlayStation platform, and I'm a big fan of that. I also thought that even if the PS3 wouldn't have a ton of exclusives, it would get all of the niche games the way the PS2 did, because I assumed it would sell better than the 360. All in all, I think the PS3 complements my Wii well for all of the games that won't really be appearing on the Wii, and for the fact that I can play Blu-ray movies. Really does look night/day compared to DVDs, if only just for the increase in the preserved colour range of the original video. Even upscaled DVD looks like VHS in comparison, because of colours alone. Watching a DVD looks like playing Quake 2.... everything looks like mud.
Yeah, that's all the people that are the most passionate about GNU/Linux so they're actually arguing that much because they care. What about all the people who just want to use the software, won't all that arguing put them off, and think of it as a negative reflection on the OSS development model? It's FUD to the outsiders, either way you look at it, and can't be brushed aside by everyone. Just because we know better doesn't mean everyone does. How do we show them what's right?
Check out last year's comment I made on the subject. The whole thing was done just to make us have arguments. Can we learn from history, so as not to repeat it?
Divide and conquer is an age old tactic. Open Source is meant to help us divide and yet still cooperate to use our separate works together, but MS is trying to get us to divide and argue amongst each other so that we no longer cooperate but stand divided on what MS is trying to make into an issue. Come on guys, MS walks in, saying "OK, half you guys get over here, and half you guys get over there because we say so. Hey hey hey, ubuntu guys, check out the way those Novell guys are looking at you...." etc. And it's like we're falling for it.
It all boils down to the fact that the software is not "under" any kind of agreement except the GNU GPL. We all know the patents are crap otherwise they would be disclosed. We all know patents do not even matter, otherwise MS (and any others who would want to squeeze GNU/Linux for some cash) would have made their move by now. All they're doing is prodding us and watching which way we squirm. Why should we squirm? Just get back to using FLOSS, nothing's changed. Except that maybe we're a lot bigger now and they're more scared.
People need to grow some balls when it comes to these situations. They're afraid of offending the person on the other end, they think they're suggesting that they're liars or frauds. Really, it's just a precaution for your own ass (you'll get fired) and your business (their normal operations can't be disrupted by random people).
Then again, administrators, executives, etc need to be more patient and understanding when what they say is challenged. They can't get an attitude or it will cause people to react by defending their character; i.e. if a less confident individual is accused of incompetence, audacity, or whatever for challenging another, then they will be more likely to feel that it is audacious or incompetent to verify a workplace activity.
Using social engineering to get people to give up their passwords? People were already socially engineered to be susceptible, and afraid. Places of businesses need to have employees treat each other with respect and make it clear to the employees that they have a right to challenge the legitimacy of any workplace situation.
Well, maybe it doesn't need to be compatible, but he's right: Apps are important. So if not compatible, Linux needs to have alternatives. By that I mean REAL alternatives, not stuff that you have to argue about.
I've used Open Office for real work, such as inventory/profit calculators, billing, invoice templates, etc.
I'm like that at home. I haven't even looked at Linux for home because I know that, regardless of any other problems, it isn't usable because it doesn't support the software I want.
So, you want alternatives, you just don't want to have to use them ever. I guess you just prefer Windows for no reason that can be applied to others, it's just personal preference.
Also it needs to either be that app, or one that is just as good. You can't start demanding compromise. You can't tell a professional graphics artist that GIMP should be "good enough" and they "don't need what Photoshop has." That's lying to them and to yourself. You can't expect them to make a switch unless you are offering something that's at least as good, and probably better.
Professionals? I thought you were talking about home desktop use. Oh well, you have to make whatever "evidence" you can grab at fit the argument, I guess. Even the products Microsoft makes, Office, Outlook, IE, don't work the same on Mac as on Windows, and don't support the same features, formats, or macros. They can read each others' files but not perfectly, and macros aren't 100% compatible, just like OpenOffice. Are they lying? People still use them and switch between them, I guess that learning something different isn't a problem. Maybe the solution is just to call OpenOffice Microsoft Office? I guess nobody knows about Crossover? StarOffice, or Cinepaint either? Nobody is looking at applications professionals use in production, or at commercial Linux applications?
So really, it is a big problem Linux faces right now. In so many settings, it simply doesn't offer the apps that people need and thus can't be considered, regardless of other merits. One real way to solve this would be total Windows compatibility.
Oh noes, the Mac is not 100% Windows compatible either, I guess Apple should give up. Seems to me the only big problem Linux faces right now is stigma that can be gleaned from posts such as yours.
See ya.
Microsoft doesn't have to have anything to do with Linux for me to use it, so regardless of what they do I'm not even affected. That's the beauty of using Linux!
Tell me about things that ARE interesting.
Hopefully it may yet entertain you, my liege...
A company is spending lots of money in order to tell people about their product, but when they pull in a willing audience who actually pays attention to the advertisement, the audience still has no clue as to what is being talked about? They're spending time, energy, money, (all valuable), in actually convincing the public that, as a company, they don't even know how to do business? How does this instill confidence in the customer OR the investor?
Yeah. I felt that way too. But I put Pirates of the Caribbean on in HD and flipped between that and an upscaled DVD, and you can tell the difference right away. Even besides the fact that it's over 6x the pixel definition of DVD, the colors are more defined, it's like it preserves much more of the spectrum over DVD. DVDs look like common internet JPGs compared to HD videos. HD formats are a lot less blocky than DVDs as well, and although it's still noticable in extreme cases (where every single frame is different), it's not nearly as prevalant on DVDs. When you're watching a DVD, you know it because you can see artifacting everywhere, almost in every scene. On HD formats it's really not noticable.
Taking all that into consideration, and when you can see some blu-ray discs on the shelves for $9 and $19 already, then why are you paying the same amount for the DVD? I saw "Happy Feet" for ~ $25 at some stores but I got it on blu-ray for $14. I won't be re-buying a whole lot of my collection, but I will for my favorites and just trade in the DVD versions for some other DVDs at the local video store I want to see. For new movies, if I see a blu-ray version I'll definitely pick them up.
For me it's a no-brainer.
In certain school districts, the BSA has audited or threatened to audit them for compliance. Since then, any software that is not distributed with a license or does not have some sort of license will be feared as being considered pirated software. A lot of school IT staff or administration have no concept of FOSS and only understand commercial proprietary software licenses. Teachers are also afraid of viruses, and refuse for anyone to bring outside copied software that isn't on an "original disc" (i.e. something that was professionally pressed).
On a tangent, having software that students can easily make copies of and take home with them to learn or do homework with could be benficial. The same could be said of "open books", books aimed at schools and students that knowledgable people collaborate on. If students could freely copy their learning materials, then learning would be less restricted to those with less money.
Good post, and I think that you are right, people could be more diplomatic in these situations. But we also have to realize that not everyone is in the best mood all of the time, and even though they may have their outbursts, we should be happy that in the end the right decision gets made and that the focus doesn't remain on who blames who for what. Fighting happens all the time, it's just important not to let it get the best of us, and make us keep adding to it. It's more important for us to realize why we should stop fighting rather than bothering to resolve a fight that's gotten ridiculous already (which could be pointless, it's important for people to learn how to drop things that aren't important), or rather than just making the fight bigger.
Yeah but Canada really started churning them out when CSI + clones started hitting TV. I like the other series you're talking about too, but this is where we've BEEN. I'm talking about where we're headed. Canada is becoming more and more americanized.
You're right, I don't know everything about French Canadian programming, most stuff I've watched in the French language is from France, or has been in the theatres. On TV, I don't really watch french/quebec programming. Then again, on TV, I don't watch a lot of english/Canadian programming. Most of what I'm talking about can be narrowed down to prime time popular culture, because this is what is reaching the youths. I'm not talking about adults with experienced perspectives who know better from watching and learning about Canada over the last century and beginning of this one. What I'm talking about is the culture that we're choosing to aim at our young bright next leaders. That is what's so troubling about it. Yes, many people watch French programming, but undoubtedly more watch English programming, because it is translated into French and also because the amount of French programming is not as much as the amount of English + English translated programming. If you're watching everything altogether, it wouldn't be distributed evenly.
Now if only Canada wouldn't just be mimicing USA whenever it makes new shows. USA has tons of CSI drama? Let's make our own! USA is making tons of reality shows? Let's have our own! USA has tabloid-formatted "entertainment news" shows? Now Canada does too!
It's funny, in Canada we used to think ourselves pretty smart for what we did in our own right, but now all we seem to do is copy USA. Sure, you can cite some other stale CBC Canada-only shows that aren't really entertaining at all... and I won't care.
Before the CRTC (Canada's FCC) started mandating Canadian content, we used to get a mix of the best of USA, Europe, Japan, and other countries' TV shows, and then throw in whatever content we produced that would be worthy of sitting alongside other countries' best offerings. We used to cooperate a lot with american shows and they'd have canadian guest stars and our shows would have american guest stars (still do, but not as much). Now that Canadian content has come out in full force, turns out that really it's nothing more than repackaged american crap.
I like South Park, but making our own lame forgery and putting that on the air is pretty pathetic. Why couldn't we just air Reboot, or something just as original and creative? Why afraid of competing with the best of other countries' television? If we put our own industries first by default, then they will stagnate and we will never be able to export quality stuff. We instead just end up making poor copies, because they'll be preferred by broadcasters by default. We're shooting ourselves in the foot.
As stated by many on Slashdot before, culture is a living breathing thing, and the world is getting closer together. By trying to craft its own 'identity', Canada is really ignoring what its citizens would naturally adopt and instead creating some artifical culture that we're all supposed to know and follow. It doesn't really work that way. Instead we may just end up getting stupider because of it. We'll be too busy with our eyes on our own plate to see what anyone else is trying.
That's funny because if you look in the early screens and graphics for that game that were put out in previews before its release, you will notice that after a certain point they started making her more "xtreme", they gave her green lipstick, made her slimmer, etc...