EU doesn't want to disclose code behind protocols. They want to disclose protocol description so other vendors can plug into it and use it. That creates healthy competitive market and promotes innovation. What MS doesn't want is to have a competition. They would like to lock in customers with their proprietary software, and no competition, and make some nice easy profits.
Problem I see is that now MS will create overcomplicated protocols, only to enforce their patents. And most importantly - as an excuse for their pricing. In a long term it can be very bad for interoperability between systems. EU should rule to totally scrap software patents. That would give MS no excuse.
I think EU doesn't like MS too much nowadays:) But honestly, aren't they right? If any monopoly is locking others from access they always do it. Why should MS be different? They're effectively a monopoly in OS.
Absolutely right. Think what happens if Apple opens DRM. Some company will want to implement it. But there's a catch - it OpenSource Player company. So source of FairPlay will leak into the wild. How hard would be to crack FairPlay afterwards? Not at all. What happens if they refuse to release it to that company? Lawsuit plus probably huge fine from EU.
There's no such option as standard open DRM. It will simply not work. The only way is to totally ditch it. And start using sensible pricing techniques. MPIA/RIAA are losing out because their time is passing. More people use internet - and they just don't want to accept the fact.
"There will be no mass migration from Windows to OS X. But there will continue to be the constant trickle to Linux."
That's true. MacOS has a fame of being a great system for home. And current advertising is only enforcing that feeling. But Linux on other side emerged from servers - that's what lots of great unwashed think. And they fear it because it's hard and complicated. But at the same time there's a lot of people who are curious. And hearing of governments switching to it makes the feeling even stronger. It started to sip to peoples brains - that's the first step, we will see the outcome in incoming years...
I installed Mandriva on my old laptop. And despite having nice and all-so-cool laptop from company I prefer to use Linux. Vista? I have all those fancy effects on Mandriva with compiz, plus it runs bloody good on old hardware. I tried Vista on new hardware and was quite disappointed. There's really nothing new and exciting. And paying so much cash for a privilege of having XP SP3 with built in WindowsBlinds? No thanks.
I would rather suggest fines that will take all earnings they made from criminal activity + little extra to pay over, let's say 1 year, so they will have time to think about it. And if they don't want to pay those installments - just jail them. And if somebody has a record of dodging those fines, they can also put some financial supervision on them. I mean only on serial offenders, because to put it on everybody would cost too much.
You're absolutely right. If somebody committed a crime which wasn't violent, why the heck should we put him in a prison? Give him a fine so big he will never even think about doing anything stupid. Never. The same about drug USERS. Every time they catch them they should give them a fine. If they cannot/want to pay put them in a prison and do a cold turkey. That should get them time to think.
"Fedora is about software freedom, and Eric cares about getting Linux everywhere no matter what."
I agree with him. If you think about this for a while it's a good thing to push Linux everywhere. Think how many programmers are programming for Windows only because it's the most common platform. If we make Linux popular, we can achieve the same. Plus if it becomes popular enough it will stop being perceived as a geeky OS. And that will also lead to even bigger market share. And because of GPL most software for it will be free.
Don't vilify somebody only because you don't agree with them. Somebody had a sig like that. Golden truth.
He chose to make it public to show what he's fighting for. He wants Linux to get real, not to be totally out of touch with reality. We need proprietary software, and very often, they need Linux. It's not about fighting with them - it's about cooperating.
I would say it's not about proprietary stuff, it's more about compatibility, market share and choice. If you don't want proprietary drivers, codecs and so on, choose Fedora / Redhat. But if you want usable distro that you can use as a nice desktop OS, without worrying about 'if it's open source or not' go for Ubuntu. Or Linspire. Or Mandriva.
That's the beauty of Linux - something for everybody, you can mix'n'match. The only reason why people speak about it is ESR is a big player in FOSS crusade.
He chose Ubuntu, fine. Don't like it? Find different idol you can follow.
Sony thought that PS2 will sell PS3. And that would happened if not that they put prices well over the limit. Wii is a winner because people CAN afford it. Exactly the same happened with "inferior" Nintendo DS. Strange that Sony didn't learn the lesson.
The same they did in Poland. There are three guys coming to your home: judge, cop and IT guy. If you don't allow them in they sign a warrant on spot and enter your premises. They even have certain pricelist, like 1 PLN for a mp3, 5 PLN for a film. Plus retail price for all illegal software. If you don't pay or cooperate - they just take your computer. And they have no problems with Win software and security (as if anybody have).
Problem is that 'old profitable monopoly' finances politicians, which in turn do whatever those monopolies want. It's called politics. No way to do anything to it, as long as they have at least a little of their reputation left. Which is not much, anyway.
I updated my friends desktop (HP Pavillion) with Vista. There were no drivers for AC'97! They got to be joking! At least HP has shown they care and I was able to download them from their site. Plus ATI drivers that hardly worked, and some minor problems with WIFI (detected as something totally different, but worked!). I had less problems with Mandriva on my new laptop. Everything worked out of the box. Including Compiz and Xgl.
How hard is to take out a simlock from a mobile? Guess how hard it will be to reflash the memory to get rid of this daemon? You guessed correctly - in no time. That technology should be incorporated in hardware (something like in Thinkpads). And another thing - they will steal it - just for a spare parts for other ones. Plus guess how many will be blacklisted, and how many left alone because nobody would care to go to speak with corrupted police?
They go to third world, there everything is possible. Company I worked for used to build GSM masts concealed as palms, if not they would be stolen! Any more questions?
I upgraded 1 computer in my company (my friend's one, didn't work with XP, hardware problems). After everybody saw it, nobody wants it anymore. Especially after problems with installation of few crucial programs (ie. Acrobat Reader 8, but 7 was fine). And those people use IE and think that Windows is the only operating system. Plus windows didn't detect 3 different USB memory sticks. They simply didn't work. But USB mouse and keyboard are fine...
I've seen enough. Bells and whistles are not enough for operating system to be successful.
Rip off all the stickers, starting with Windows Genuine Certificate at the bottom... Install Linux, pretend that your laptop is a generic Chinese copy... Have peace of mind, start coding...
I remember connecting to Internet in middle '90s using 14400 baud modem from school. For about 2 months before somebody checked the phone bills and nicked the modem so some smartarses couldn't use it any more (that was us).
Not much later they connected leased line - 128k for something like 50 computers... We needed to nuke rest of them (Win95 was soooo cool with this) so only our computers were online.
And seeing 20 BSOD at the time and other kids with jaws down - PRICELESS!
Don't forget that rolling it will be a major IT challenge. 5% as a start doesn't sound very well but 16,000 is quite a lot of workstations. And add servers. That's a lot of beta testers, IMHO.
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EU doesn't want to disclose code behind protocols. They want to disclose protocol description so other vendors can plug into it and use it. That creates healthy competitive market and promotes innovation. What MS doesn't want is to have a competition. They would like to lock in customers with their proprietary software, and no competition, and make some nice easy profits.
Problem I see is that now MS will create overcomplicated protocols, only to enforce their patents. And most importantly - as an excuse for their pricing. In a long term it can be very bad for interoperability between systems. EU should rule to totally scrap software patents. That would give MS no excuse.
I think EU doesn't like MS too much nowadays :)
But honestly, aren't they right? If any monopoly is locking others from access they always do it. Why should MS be different? They're effectively a monopoly in OS.
Absolutely right. Think what happens if Apple opens DRM. Some company will want to implement it. But there's a catch - it OpenSource Player company. So source of FairPlay will leak into the wild. How hard would be to crack FairPlay afterwards? Not at all. What happens if they refuse to release it to that company? Lawsuit plus probably huge fine from EU.
There's no such option as standard open DRM. It will simply not work. The only way is to totally ditch it. And start using sensible pricing techniques. MPIA/RIAA are losing out because their time is passing. More people use internet - and they just don't want to accept the fact.
Honestly, what's the difference if it's on or off if users always click Allow anyway?
"There will be no mass migration from Windows to OS X. But there will continue to be the constant trickle to Linux."
That's true. MacOS has a fame of being a great system for home. And current advertising is only enforcing that feeling. But Linux on other side emerged from servers - that's what lots of great unwashed think. And they fear it because it's hard and complicated. But at the same time there's a lot of people who are curious. And hearing of governments switching to it makes the feeling even stronger.
It started to sip to peoples brains - that's the first step, we will see the outcome in incoming years...
I installed Mandriva on my old laptop. And despite having nice and all-so-cool laptop from company I prefer to use Linux.
Vista? I have all those fancy effects on Mandriva with compiz, plus it runs bloody good on old hardware. I tried Vista on new hardware and was quite disappointed. There's really nothing new and exciting. And paying so much cash for a privilege of having XP SP3 with built in WindowsBlinds? No thanks.
I would rather suggest fines that will take all earnings they made from criminal activity + little extra to pay over, let's say 1 year, so they will have time to think about it. And if they don't want to pay those installments - just jail them.
And if somebody has a record of dodging those fines, they can also put some financial supervision on them. I mean only on serial offenders, because to put it on everybody would cost too much.
You're absolutely right. If somebody committed a crime which wasn't violent, why the heck should we put him in a prison? Give him a fine so big he will never even think about doing anything stupid. Never. The same about drug USERS. Every time they catch them they should give them a fine. If they cannot/want to pay put them in a prison and do a cold turkey. That should get them time to think.
"Fedora is about software freedom, and Eric cares about getting Linux everywhere no matter what."
I agree with him. If you think about this for a while it's a good thing to push Linux everywhere. Think how many programmers are programming for Windows only because it's the most common platform. If we make Linux popular, we can achieve the same. Plus if it becomes popular enough it will stop being perceived as a geeky OS. And that will also lead to even bigger market share. And because of GPL most software for it will be free.
Don't vilify somebody only because you don't agree with them. Somebody had a sig like that. Golden truth.
He chose to make it public to show what he's fighting for. He wants Linux to get real, not to be totally out of touch with reality. We need proprietary software, and very often, they need Linux. It's not about fighting with them - it's about cooperating.
I would say it's not about proprietary stuff, it's more about compatibility, market share and choice. If you don't want proprietary drivers, codecs and so on, choose Fedora / Redhat. But if you want usable distro that you can use as a nice desktop OS, without worrying about 'if it's open source or not' go for Ubuntu. Or Linspire. Or Mandriva.
That's the beauty of Linux - something for everybody, you can mix'n'match. The only reason why people speak about it is ESR is a big player in FOSS crusade.
He chose Ubuntu, fine. Don't like it? Find different idol you can follow.
Sony thought that PS2 will sell PS3. And that would happened if not that they put prices well over the limit.
Wii is a winner because people CAN afford it. Exactly the same happened with "inferior" Nintendo DS. Strange that Sony didn't learn the lesson.
The same they did in Poland. There are three guys coming to your home: judge, cop and IT guy. If you don't allow them in they sign a warrant on spot and enter your premises. They even have certain pricelist, like 1 PLN for a mp3, 5 PLN for a film. Plus retail price for all illegal software. If you don't pay or cooperate - they just take your computer. And they have no problems with Win software and security (as if anybody have).
Is it a law? Or it's an abuse?
Actually it does, but only for a very short time.
Problem is that 'old profitable monopoly' finances politicians, which in turn do whatever those monopolies want.
It's called politics.
No way to do anything to it, as long as they have at least a little of their reputation left. Which is not much, anyway.
I updated my friends desktop (HP Pavillion) with Vista. There were no drivers for AC'97! They got to be joking!
At least HP has shown they care and I was able to download them from their site. Plus ATI drivers that hardly worked, and some minor problems with WIFI (detected as something totally different, but worked!).
I had less problems with Mandriva on my new laptop. Everything worked out of the box. Including Compiz and Xgl.
How hard is to take out a simlock from a mobile? Guess how hard it will be to reflash the memory to get rid of this daemon?
You guessed correctly - in no time. That technology should be incorporated in hardware (something like in Thinkpads).
And another thing - they will steal it - just for a spare parts for other ones. Plus guess how many will be blacklisted, and how many left alone because nobody would care to go to speak with corrupted police?
They go to third world, there everything is possible. Company I worked for used to build GSM masts concealed as palms, if not they would be stolen!
Any more questions?
I upgraded 1 computer in my company (my friend's one, didn't work with XP, hardware problems). After everybody saw it, nobody wants it anymore. Especially after problems with installation of few crucial programs (ie. Acrobat Reader 8, but 7 was fine). And those people use IE and think that Windows is the only operating system.
Plus windows didn't detect 3 different USB memory sticks. They simply didn't work. But USB mouse and keyboard are fine...
I've seen enough. Bells and whistles are not enough for operating system to be successful.
ME!
I left on my Thinkpad the famous "Designed for Windows XP".
But I run Linux, what an irony...
And search through address bar. Works almost the same.
Rip off all the stickers, starting with Windows Genuine Certificate at the bottom...
Install Linux, pretend that your laptop is a generic Chinese copy...
Have peace of mind, start coding...
I remember connecting to Internet in middle '90s using 14400 baud modem from school. For about 2 months before somebody checked the phone bills and nicked the modem so some smartarses couldn't use it any more (that was us).
Not much later they connected leased line - 128k for something like 50 computers... We needed to nuke rest of them (Win95 was soooo cool with this) so only our computers were online.
And seeing 20 BSOD at the time and other kids with jaws down - PRICELESS!
Brings back memories...
Don't forget that rolling it will be a major IT challenge. 5% as a start doesn't sound very well but 16,000 is quite a lot of workstations. And add servers. That's a lot of beta testers, IMHO.