Yes, that's because it's `evil western spiritual influence`. They have guards at TV/radio stations to ensure nothing they don't like gets put on air, and you think they'd let such a western-style game slip through? Especially one where they could communicate with the outside world (chinese communication is supposedly cut off from the rest of the world and vice versa)...
Then there's the publicity aspect, no-one cares so much about warcraft 3 any more (except me, i play WC3 but not WoW) because it's been out so long, but WoW is a huge selling game, so many people are subscribed to and it's never out of the news. That combined with the korean deaths from WoW and it's clearly set up to call it blizzard's fault for making such an addictive game.
Of course there's never parental responsibility anywhere, always someone else to blame...
Fine, compress images, but extensions, to those who use them are a much bigger problem. I switched to epiphany because I had a tendency to overload firefox with extensions (and besides ephy is faster even with a clean firefox).
When you have as few as 5 extensions, memory and CPU usage soar terribly. I realise this won't affect 80% of users like images would, but certainly 95% of FF-using slashdotters it will affect.
Surprisingly flock doesn't appear to suffer as badly from either problem, perhaps they've put it on a diet?
`It's free, it can't be as good as the product that costs ${large_amount_of_cash}`
Ubuntu has gone some way to changing that because people have ordered CDs and tried it (just because they're free (beer)) and realised that really, freebies aren't all that bad. But what about the vast majority of people who haven't even heard of linux, or openoffice, or any of the other free(speech) applications?
And then there is the problem of education. Throughout the whole of my education, the institutions were wedded to windows, you weren't able to use a linux live CD, that would be a bannable offence, and just forget being able to work on documents at home if you didn't have windows. The MSDNAA is just another snare to get universities using microsoft products and to try and gain loyalty with students. Still there is the perception that cheap = crap. Just how far does it extend? And how many of the kids in school right now are going to grow up thinking microsoft is the only, or best, choice?
If that was all it was about, there wouldn't be such a problem.
Unfortunately it's about taking control and eventually forcing a subscription system, and the side effects are already bad. I have an idea, lets search all people who leave my store to see if they stole anything. That would contravene your rights, why should it be any different online? Why should they be able to get away with this online?
Of course the above would only apply to paying customers who would then not be able to use what they bought while in their own house etc.
Some artists, yes. Some artists (notably the foo fighters) have objected completely to the point of posting advice to listeners on their own forums on how to bypass the drm systems.
Everything doesn't have to be free as in cost, but it should be free to use sensibly (move around and sample for private use etc.).
Fair enough, i can see your point, but not all artists want the drm and are mortified the label has applied DRM to their music.
It'd be nice to think they would.
If you like, for a brief moment lets imagine you like madonna... (i know, highly unlikely).
Anyway, if you like madonna, you want the madonna CD. You can't just go buy a CD from another artist, it won't do, it isn't the same.
This is how they will get away with it, sneaky bastards
Well it might not be a physical person, but one day the DRM will do that. Sony have already said they want you to be unable to rip music or transport it anywhere in digital form to make you buy a seperate cd for the car etc.
One day the drm will do that. And cracking will just lead to them suing you for phenominal amounts of money...
i disagree. The sony rootkit was there to actively prevent anyone from pirating and to report those who did. That doesn't seem to me like a measure targeted to reduce the number of pirates, more one with the arrogance of stopping piracy completely. They just don't get it. Their business model is failing and they're trying to prop it up by bending the law to make using the same cd in both the car and the home illegal.
That's an interesting point i hadn't thought of. If it comes to the day when they're using it to monopolise, that's the day we can take the entire institution down. Mod guys, that post deserves points.
...above and all over the web people recommending limewire as the choice for music distribution.
What they're failing to take into account is limewire's recent addition of voluntary licencing, whereby if a file has a licence attached, it shows this. Limewire has already publicly announced that it will become mandatory to have licenced content and unlicenced content will be banned.
Forgive me for thinking the entire point of p2p was freedom to share files. Next time you want to download those fedora ISO images, tough luck. Next time you want to share some music you created yourself, that's unfortunate.
Another example of record company bullying that's going to mess with the whole underlying idea of p2p
Perhaps the banning of the keyword phrase `fuck the riaa`?
In case they haven't noticed, there are so many fakes on there anyway that a name isnt an accurate guarantee of what a file contains. But of course this matters not so long as the RIAA can line their pockers with consumers' money.
i mean clearly Everyone is with the RIAA, every artist and record label supports what they're doing, and it's clearly in consumer interests. I mean who wouldn't jump at the opportunity to buy a CD for the house, for the car and for the media center, all seperately. Don't you derive enough satisfaction buying it once?
The other thing to wonder is how long will it be before they try to pass a bill requiring all record labels to back them or something similar. They've already tried to make analog content illegal, how long before they assert rights over music that isn't their own? How long before we have each label using their own DRM program that eats 5% of your CPU. So i'd want one for my ipod, i'd have to have the apple version. Then i'd want one for my media center, i'd need the microsoft version. Then i'd want a copy i could play on my sony stereo system that only supports ATRAC, well that would require a sony system. Thats 15% of my cpu before we even go into what i'd need to play it in my car etc. It's ridiculous and people have to see it. And if you don't want to get rootkitted, you download the track through p2p and the industry comes chasing after you even if you bought the DRMed CD already.
you can't win under this system, but you can put up a good fight to stop it taking over
I see people moaning about googleads in this thread and talking about it subconsciously affecting you.
Here's the thing, ads will exist regardless, but you have a choice. You can have garish in-your-face ads that are guaranteed to piss you off when you hover over them and they expand to cover the entire page or you can have subtle, unannoying ads that are relevant to the page and may help you find something you've been looking for or another site of interest due to their close relation to content. And the in-your-face ads get you subconsciously too.
That said, i would prefer it if some sites offered ad-free subscriptions, there are some that do that i'm considering subscribing to, as a matter of helping them out as well as removing ads. On the other hand, there is always RIP for firefox that can remove adsense.
I've used ubuntu for a few months and decided it isn't worth the hassle and i'm back to using fedora core.
There are a number of issues that it does not address sufficiently.
I was recently at a canonical event where they were promoting ubuntu and when asking questions, the speaker was largely unable to provide satisfactory answers, he didn't really know his linux and canonical seriously need to improve some aspects of the desktop.
One of the key problems for businesses is that there will undoubtably be custom software they need to install, software unavailable through an apt repository. If you've ever tried compiling software on ubuntu you may well recognise that things begin to break when you start compiling or installing custom deb files. A further problem will manifest when it comes time to apt-get dist-upgrade and a few of those files you've updated could end up rendering your system unusable (hey, it happened to me).
Bizarrely enough, these problems tend not to happen with debian, partially perhaps due to the reduced need to install software manually because of the increased amount of software available in repositories.
Ubuntu has a long way to go for business, and as of yet i'm unwilling to put it on a server due to issues i've had previously. Perhaps when these issues get ironed out i may consider it, but some of the new features coming should improve usability, key if you're rolling it out across a business network. What is nice is that it retains emphasis on GPLed software, but some of the software in the repos is not GPL, not that most users will be bothered. I don't believe it quite fits the needs of business just yet, but who knows what's to come?
Slashdot Mirror
Then there's the publicity aspect, no-one cares so much about warcraft 3 any more (except me, i play WC3 but not WoW) because it's been out so long, but WoW is a huge selling game, so many people are subscribed to and it's never out of the news. That combined with the korean deaths from WoW and it's clearly set up to call it blizzard's fault for making such an addictive game.
Of course there's never parental responsibility anywhere, always someone else to blame...
When you have as few as 5 extensions, memory and CPU usage soar terribly. I realise this won't affect 80% of users like images would, but certainly 95% of FF-using slashdotters it will affect.
Surprisingly flock doesn't appear to suffer as badly from either problem, perhaps they've put it on a diet?
`It's free, it can't be as good as the product that costs ${large_amount_of_cash}`
Ubuntu has gone some way to changing that because people have ordered CDs and tried it (just because they're free (beer)) and realised that really, freebies aren't all that bad. But what about the vast majority of people who haven't even heard of linux, or openoffice, or any of the other free(speech) applications?
And then there is the problem of education. Throughout the whole of my education, the institutions were wedded to windows, you weren't able to use a linux live CD, that would be a bannable offence, and just forget being able to work on documents at home if you didn't have windows. The MSDNAA is just another snare to get universities using microsoft products and to try and gain loyalty with students. Still there is the perception that cheap = crap. Just how far does it extend? And how many of the kids in school right now are going to grow up thinking microsoft is the only, or best, choice?
I'll let the GNU foundation take it from here : Free Software in educationBy `licencing`, read `DRM restricting`
If that was all it was about, there wouldn't be such a problem. Unfortunately it's about taking control and eventually forcing a subscription system, and the side effects are already bad. I have an idea, lets search all people who leave my store to see if they stole anything. That would contravene your rights, why should it be any different online? Why should they be able to get away with this online? Of course the above would only apply to paying customers who would then not be able to use what they bought while in their own house etc.
Some artists, yes. Some artists (notably the foo fighters) have objected completely to the point of posting advice to listeners on their own forums on how to bypass the drm systems. Everything doesn't have to be free as in cost, but it should be free to use sensibly (move around and sample for private use etc.). Fair enough, i can see your point, but not all artists want the drm and are mortified the label has applied DRM to their music.
It'd be nice to think they would. If you like, for a brief moment lets imagine you like madonna... (i know, highly unlikely). Anyway, if you like madonna, you want the madonna CD. You can't just go buy a CD from another artist, it won't do, it isn't the same. This is how they will get away with it, sneaky bastards
Well it might not be a physical person, but one day the DRM will do that. Sony have already said they want you to be unable to rip music or transport it anywhere in digital form to make you buy a seperate cd for the car etc. One day the drm will do that. And cracking will just lead to them suing you for phenominal amounts of money...
i disagree. The sony rootkit was there to actively prevent anyone from pirating and to report those who did. That doesn't seem to me like a measure targeted to reduce the number of pirates, more one with the arrogance of stopping piracy completely. They just don't get it. Their business model is failing and they're trying to prop it up by bending the law to make using the same cd in both the car and the home illegal.
That's an interesting point i hadn't thought of. If it comes to the day when they're using it to monopolise, that's the day we can take the entire institution down. Mod guys, that post deserves points.
What they're failing to take into account is limewire's recent addition of voluntary licencing, whereby if a file has a licence attached, it shows this. Limewire has already publicly announced that it will become mandatory to have licenced content and unlicenced content will be banned.
Forgive me for thinking the entire point of p2p was freedom to share files. Next time you want to download those fedora ISO images, tough luck. Next time you want to share some music you created yourself, that's unfortunate.
Another example of record company bullying that's going to mess with the whole underlying idea of p2p
Perhaps the banning of the keyword phrase `fuck the riaa`? In case they haven't noticed, there are so many fakes on there anyway that a name isnt an accurate guarantee of what a file contains. But of course this matters not so long as the RIAA can line their pockers with consumers' money.
The other thing to wonder is how long will it be before they try to pass a bill requiring all record labels to back them or something similar. They've already tried to make analog content illegal, how long before they assert rights over music that isn't their own? How long before we have each label using their own DRM program that eats 5% of your CPU. So i'd want one for my ipod, i'd have to have the apple version. Then i'd want one for my media center, i'd need the microsoft version. Then i'd want a copy i could play on my sony stereo system that only supports ATRAC, well that would require a sony system. Thats 15% of my cpu before we even go into what i'd need to play it in my car etc. It's ridiculous and people have to see it. And if you don't want to get rootkitted, you download the track through p2p and the industry comes chasing after you even if you bought the DRMed CD already.
you can't win under this system, but you can put up a good fight to stop it taking over
I see people moaning about googleads in this thread and talking about it subconsciously affecting you. Here's the thing, ads will exist regardless, but you have a choice. You can have garish in-your-face ads that are guaranteed to piss you off when you hover over them and they expand to cover the entire page or you can have subtle, unannoying ads that are relevant to the page and may help you find something you've been looking for or another site of interest due to their close relation to content. And the in-your-face ads get you subconsciously too. That said, i would prefer it if some sites offered ad-free subscriptions, there are some that do that i'm considering subscribing to, as a matter of helping them out as well as removing ads. On the other hand, there is always RIP for firefox that can remove adsense.
I've used ubuntu for a few months and decided it isn't worth the hassle and i'm back to using fedora core. There are a number of issues that it does not address sufficiently. I was recently at a canonical event where they were promoting ubuntu and when asking questions, the speaker was largely unable to provide satisfactory answers, he didn't really know his linux and canonical seriously need to improve some aspects of the desktop. One of the key problems for businesses is that there will undoubtably be custom software they need to install, software unavailable through an apt repository. If you've ever tried compiling software on ubuntu you may well recognise that things begin to break when you start compiling or installing custom deb files. A further problem will manifest when it comes time to apt-get dist-upgrade and a few of those files you've updated could end up rendering your system unusable (hey, it happened to me). Bizarrely enough, these problems tend not to happen with debian, partially perhaps due to the reduced need to install software manually because of the increased amount of software available in repositories. Ubuntu has a long way to go for business, and as of yet i'm unwilling to put it on a server due to issues i've had previously. Perhaps when these issues get ironed out i may consider it, but some of the new features coming should improve usability, key if you're rolling it out across a business network. What is nice is that it retains emphasis on GPLed software, but some of the software in the repos is not GPL, not that most users will be bothered. I don't believe it quite fits the needs of business just yet, but who knows what's to come?