First, do really half the world have _their own_ computer? Source please.
Second, I'd say it's a net gain from piracy, not a loss. Only a fraction of the people who pirate windows/office would have had the funds to buy it, but since they can pirate it, MS's monopoly lives on. It's a bit sad, really.
So perhaps it is not THEFT in the traditional sense, but it is THEFT in the "I'm taking something that I'm not authorized to take" sense.
Ay, there's the rub. Some people dispute that this should be called theft. The whole "intellectual propery" is more imposed by laws, and less "natural" than laws againts physical theft (they argue).
For an interesting read, go to http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt (Cory Doctorow's talk about DRM at MS. It starts by outlining copyright history).
This is great news! In countries, like Norway, where I live, where DRM is not protected by law, this will allow hardware and software to support every format they want to. If it passes, of course. Vive la France!
As a previous poster said, instead of making a new distro, why not make a package that works on all flavors of Linux that will fix one of the problems with moving switchers?
I use archlinux (no, not ark linux), which implies udev, and thunar. My own usb pen works good, and this weekend a friend came to visit, with a usb harddrive in two partitions. Both partitions showed up in thunar about a second after i pressed the on-button, and the FAT worked flawlessly (the NTFS less so, of course. I didn't mount it, but it showed up).
Thunar automagically mounted for me when I clicked on the device icon. When I was done, i left-clicked and selected "unmount". The only non-intuitive thing I can think of here, is the fact that the word "unmount" was used. perhaps "disconnect" or something would be better. and don't say "safely remove hardware". When I hear that, i alwasy think of electrictricity and grounding:)
The only "dirty work" i've done to enable this, is to add my user to the "storage" group, and a "simple-to-use" distro could just use a different udev rule to avoid that requirement.
NetBeans at least, and I'd guess the other two as well, have windows-like installers that work like a charm. You just can't install them system-wide, unless you su[do].
I'm seriosly considering taking a GPL distro, adding mp3, libdvdcss and similar, and offering a seed and a torrent. It's legal where I live, you know. Hmmm. I could just maintain a small repository, keep the few multimedia packages up to date, and track the release cycle of the main project. I got to look into this some more.....
Plus, define "easy". How many steps does it take to change distros, while maintaining all your user files? (With no command lines involved, of course.)
Well, gosh. You've got me there. Let's see. I download an ISO, burn the cd. Then i place the CD in the drive, and reboot. Then I follow instructions. Haven't done a base install for a long time, but I would guess most installers pick up my existsing/etc/fstab and figure out my/home lives on/dev/hdb4. So it should provide some sensible defaults.
Now you do the same with windows.
Ah, the advantages of seperating device details from the file system hierarchy. And even if my old windows install had %HOME% for all users on a seperate partition, I doubt my fresh install would know.
And Microsoft and Dell and the rest of them "read" their minds and continue to give it to them. Nice and simple...
Hah. If you asked people if they would rather have a default media format with or without DRM, what would you whink they would answer? Or if you asked if they would like to have an OS where it's not really hard for random people to steal your bandwith and use it to send spam.
The "average joes" people go on about, dont _want_ windows. They want the path of least resistance. That's why they would probably switch, given a better alternative.
Some people seem to feel they have an obligation to save the world from windows and MS. Me, all I want is a couple % more userbase, so third party hardware and software will be under more pressure. Remember, Linux is not windows. Fortunately.
You seem to think KDE is good, then recommend GNOME for most dists because it "suits them". Logic hoy... No, he recommended GNOME to most _mainstream_ dists, probably because he doesn't think too highly of them, if you take the rest of his post into consideration.
I have to agree with you about the browser-in-filemanager thing. I really don't get what GP was trying to say.
And I haven't had to use gconf-editor for pretty much anything at all since 2.6 or so, can't be too sure but it's sure been heck of a long time...
I don't run gnome, but I use some gnome apps. I have to use gconf-editor way too much.
And on the other hand, I have given up trying to figure out how the heck to not make KDE to use Konqueror (which I don't have installed) to open web links.
1. Run kcontrol. 2. find the element called "KDE Components". Expand. 3. Choose "component choser" from its children. 4. Choose "Web browser" from the list of components. (ouch. KDE control center is a mess:) 5. Select the "in the following browser..." radio-button. Type the command into the text field, or use the appkication chooser (the button with "..." writen on it, to the right of the text field. Hope this helps:)
After some quick testing, I found that both GNOME-terminal and konsole supports drag-and-drop into the shell window. Gnome terminal just pastes the filename, konsole lets you choose between pasting the name, and some common commands.
Ok, then let me add my voice to the fray:) I used to watch all videos with mplayer, but since it crashed so much, I "converted" to xine. Simple as that. I'll admit, though, that mplayer is probably faster.
Nuclear power is not viable. The two main reasons, from the top of my head:
1. Uranium is scarce. See Willem S. van Leeuwn and Philip Bartletts writings. They claim that in a scenario where we raised nuclear reactor capacity to about 15% of world energy usage (today it's about 7%), we would need to process 10000 tonns of rock pr tonn uranium. And since fossil fuel would most likely be used both for proessing and transport, nuclear power may end up being worse for global warming than sticking to what we have today.
2. What to do about the waste? It will need to be stored securely for some million years.
I think that operations in GIMP are added through plugins, most of the time. In stead of whining, browse over to gimp.org. It took me all of two clicks to find this.
Slashdot Mirror
All PHP programmers use the same method. It's called "the internet".
Nitpicking:
I would think song and music came _before_ the written word.
If you try this on your home PC, I guarantee that all of the magic smoke will escape.
:)
To be replaced by regular smoke
First, do really half the world have _their own_ computer? Source please.
Second, I'd say it's a net gain from piracy, not a loss.
Only a fraction of the people who pirate windows/office would have had the funds to buy it, but since they can pirate it, MS's monopoly lives on. It's a bit sad, really.
Ay, there's the rub.
Some people dispute that this should be called theft. The whole "intellectual propery" is more imposed by laws, and less "natural" than laws againts physical theft (they argue).
For an interesting read, go to http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt (Cory Doctorow's talk about DRM at MS. It starts by outlining copyright history).
PS: I agree completely with your last paragraph
I remember the norwegian military got a copy of the Windows source some years back (I think it was for W2000).
This is great news!
In countries, like Norway, where I live, where DRM is not protected by law, this will allow hardware and software to support every format they want to. If it passes, of course. Vive la France!
It's called Autopackage.
I use archlinux (no, not ark linux), which implies udev, and thunar. My own usb pen works good, and this weekend a friend came to visit, with a usb harddrive in two partitions. Both partitions showed up in thunar about a second after i pressed the on-button, and the FAT worked flawlessly (the NTFS less so, of course. I didn't mount it, but it showed up).
:)
Thunar automagically mounted for me when I clicked on the device icon. When I was done, i left-clicked and selected "unmount". The only non-intuitive thing I can think of here, is the fact that the word "unmount" was used. perhaps "disconnect" or something would be better. and don't say "safely remove hardware". When I hear that, i alwasy think of electrictricity and grounding
The only "dirty work" i've done to enable this, is to add my user to the "storage" group, and a "simple-to-use" distro could just use a different udev rule to avoid that requirement.
NetBeans at least, and I'd guess the other two as well, have windows-like installers that work like a charm. You just can't install them system-wide, unless you su[do].
I'm seriosly considering taking a GPL distro, adding mp3, libdvdcss and similar, and offering a seed and a torrent. It's legal where I live, you know.
Hmmm. I could just maintain a small repository, keep the few multimedia packages up to date, and track the release cycle of the main project. I got to look into this some more.....
Well, gosh. You've got me there.
Let's see. I download an ISO, burn the cd. Then i place the CD in the drive, and reboot. Then I follow instructions. Haven't done a base install for a long time, but I would guess most installers pick up my existsing
Now you do the same with windows.
Ah, the advantages of seperating device details from the file system hierarchy. And even if my old windows install had %HOME% for all users on a seperate partition, I doubt my fresh install would know.
The main complaint TFA had, was that the writer couldn't be bothered to tinker and customize
Hah. If you asked people if they would rather have a default media format with or without DRM, what would you whink they would answer?
Or if you asked if they would like to have an OS where it's not really hard for random people to steal your bandwith and use it to send spam.
The "average joes" people go on about, dont _want_ windows. They want the path of least resistance. That's why they would probably switch, given a better alternative.
Some people seem to feel they have an obligation to save the world from windows and MS. Me, all I want is a couple % more userbase, so third party hardware and software will be under more pressure. Remember, Linux is not windows. Fortunately.
Then perhaps you should compile kmfclient yourself, or find a distro that seperates it from the Konqueror package.
You seem to think KDE is good, then recommend GNOME for most dists because it "suits them". Logic hoy...
:) :)
No, he recommended GNOME to most _mainstream_ dists, probably because he doesn't think too highly of them, if you take the rest of his post into consideration.
I have to agree with you about the browser-in-filemanager thing. I really don't get what GP was trying to say.
And I haven't had to use gconf-editor for pretty much anything at all since 2.6 or so, can't be too sure but it's sure been heck of a long time...
I don't run gnome, but I use some gnome apps. I have to use gconf-editor way too much.
And on the other hand, I have given up trying to figure out how the heck to not make KDE to use Konqueror (which I don't have installed) to open web links.
1. Run kcontrol.
2. find the element called "KDE Components". Expand.
3. Choose "component choser" from its children.
4. Choose "Web browser" from the list of components. (ouch. KDE control center is a mess
5. Select the "in the following browser..." radio-button. Type the command into the text field, or use the appkication chooser (the button with "..." writen on it, to the right of the text field.
Hope this helps
Actually, it _should_ be stored in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nautilus (or perhaps $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome/nautilus), according to the XDG base directory spec.
After some quick testing, I found that both GNOME-terminal and konsole supports drag-and-drop into the shell window. Gnome terminal just pastes the filename, konsole lets you choose between pasting the name, and some common commands.
It would be rather vexing to find that you'd misplaced the last one, after switching disks 24999 times :)
OK, point taken. OP probably meant the equalient of `chmod -R a+rxw /*`, though.
For the DVD, i'd also recommend trying out ogle, and spcifically the gui goggles.
Ok, then let me add my voice to the fray :) I used to watch all videos with mplayer, but since it crashed so much, I "converted" to xine. Simple as that. I'll admit, though, that mplayer is probably faster.
Nuclear power is not viable. The two main reasons, from the top of my head:
1. Uranium is scarce. See Willem S. van Leeuwn and Philip Bartletts writings. They claim that in a scenario where we raised nuclear reactor capacity to about 15% of world energy usage (today it's about 7%), we would need to process 10000 tonns of rock pr tonn uranium. And since fossil fuel would most likely be used both for proessing and transport, nuclear power may end up being worse for global warming than sticking to what we have today.
2. What to do about the waste? It will need to be stored securely for some million years.
I remember reading about some high-tech ship some years ago. It had sails with solar clees on, and an electrical engine. It was rahter neat.
I think that operations in GIMP are added through plugins, most of the time. In stead of whining, browse over to gimp.org. It took me all of two clicks to find this.