No, I'm not telling you that it is going to dethrone Symbian and Windows. I'm telling you that it'll be funny to read your comment again if it does. Besides, keep in mind the speed at which iPod, Google/GMail, Flash etc gained market dominance though they started late, had initially reached 1% of their markets in the first year of their existence and and were competing against well-entrenched companies with mountains of money.
1) I didn't compare Linux to Vista. I said that on many installations, Linux hardware support is lacking to say the least. I don't care if somebody's favorite garbage OS has better or worse hardware support, I tell about an important problem we have to solve. Vista may or may not support a huge amount of hardware, but unless we do far better (i.e. support everything it supports and more out of the box. Yes I really mean out of the box), we're not going to win this fight.
2) Last time I checked, x86 is used on every single notebook and every single modern desktop out there (older Macs aside). I'm a Debian user myself, so you don't have to tell me about the number of platforms a Linux distro may support. Things may change if these new ARM netbooks will take off; until then, we bow to our old x86 overlords.
We do not impose any rules on anyone. We just define the game we're going to play ourselves. Besides, the other distributions will not just, you know, vanish overnight. Linux geeks will always have something to play with; however, this kind of diversity has proven to be unmaintainable when we're targeting Joe Average.
What you say is completely true; however, I find it highly improbable that the kernel developers will change their policies anytime soon. What I suggest is rather a fix to the problem that takes into account unfortunate but quite real constraints, while you're talking about a real solution whose requirements aren't going to be satisfied for quite a while, or so it may seem.
With Ubuntu now in a "just works" state on some hardware
There. Fixed that for you. Unfortunately, my own stats (and I have installed Ubuntu on lots of different hardware configurations) indicate that in only about 30% cases it just works with all the hardware that an average user will immediately notice to fail. Wireless, sound cards, video cards (missing 3d support and more), ACPI quirks... I think that the year of Linux on Desktop will never come, until we realize that we must not go the Microsoft Way - we must go the Apple Way, no matter how absurd as it may sound at first! And maybe Google is trying to do just that - make sure there are several distinct hardware configurations 100% supported by Android, instead of writing software to support everything invented by the mankind.
Would be funny to see your comment join the ranks of famous quotes like "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." and "640kb should be enough for everybody" a few years later, when/if Android beats both Symbian and Windows:-)
(Disclaimer: I'm not trolling here; I am really this ignorant in economics)
Can anyone explain to me why is considered bad to have a large foreign debt? As far as I understand, foreign debt means that we receive lots of goods and do not compensate their nation of origin for them, which is the foundation of any colonial economy and has been considered good at all times. What am I missing here, ethical issues aside?
US didn't invade Iraq to drive oil prices down. Judging from the available information, GWB mostly served interests of American oil corporations, which obviously wanted to capture Iraqi oil (to establish a larger market share) and to drive prices up. Good for the sponsors of the ruling party != good for the rest of the American economy.
The problem is, paying for all that computing power, data storage, software development and other stuff may occasionally not be my goal. Sometimes I just want to browse a damn photo gallery or write an online document.
That reminds me of an old Russian joke. A Russian and an American meet and argue about who has better freedom of speech. American: We have free speech: I can come to the White House and shout "Reagan is an asshole!" Russian: So do we: I can come to the Kremlin and shout "Reagan is an asshole!", too.
Actually, shielding spacecrafts from the effects of space weather is a real problem! Aah, nothing like the sound of onboard electronics getting fried with a ton of high-speed protons from a coronal mass ejection:-)
Let me guess, you have never used a PDF viewer aside from Adobe Reader? This mistake has been made time and time again: what sucks is the particular implementation, not the file format! Try Foxit if you're a Windows guy, Okular or KPDF if you use KDE, or something else shiny if you're a Mac. You'll see the difference, I promise:-)
you should be able to code in straight C in all operating systems the same. obviously, you can't do that now. but that doesn't justify the existence of libraries, it just means they are temporary bandaids that should go away with the implementation of the next C (crossing fingers)
Makes about as much sense as what you said. Javascript libraries do more than just fix browser inconsistencies, they add many useful features and improve a programmer's life significantly.
I think that many of us would rather prefer this video (The future is open). Who did the voting, anyway? It even has a remarkably better YouTube rating than the winner; they could use it as a hint at what the masses prefer.
Uh. South Korea, while being pretty rich and having lots of economical freedom, has less than ok political freedom, at least judging from information available to me. Capitalist + pro-American != free, unless you define "free" as pro-American, which is quite widespread nowadays.
Paying a flat tax on digital music and video would be much more convenient than what we have where I live, as long as it's not ridiculously high. And opt-out is definitely fine with me: they're actually liberating me from the paperwork necessary to opt-in! Again, this may only seem attractive to me and my compatriots, whose lives are often made miserable by monstrous bureaucracy and unavailability of legal online services most of the Western countries are used to.
Of course, this aircraft carrier has nothing to do with this person, who is still alive. Or perhaps Navy isn't a serious governmental organization? My point is that you're plain wrong, no offense meant.
Could as well be as you say; however, since RMS's opinion changed from 'it is free software' to 'that is definitely a problem' during our discussion, I suppose that it had an effect of its own, even if a small one.
Could perfectly be the way you said. However, why it would be such a big deal? Why it would be necessary to present this story as his personal discovery? After all, it's him anyway who does the actual job of preaching/convincing/manipulating/(you name it) the masses.
Slashdot Mirror
No, I'm not telling you that it is going to dethrone Symbian and Windows. I'm telling you that it'll be funny to read your comment again if it does. Besides, keep in mind the speed at which iPod, Google/GMail, Flash etc gained market dominance though they started late, had initially reached 1% of their markets in the first year of their existence and and were competing against well-entrenched companies with mountains of money.
You're welcome. Don't forget to bookmark it for convenience.
1) I didn't compare Linux to Vista. I said that on many installations, Linux hardware support is lacking to say the least. I don't care if somebody's favorite garbage OS has better or worse hardware support, I tell about an important problem we have to solve. Vista may or may not support a huge amount of hardware, but unless we do far better (i.e. support everything it supports and more out of the box. Yes I really mean out of the box), we're not going to win this fight.
2) Last time I checked, x86 is used on every single notebook and every single modern desktop out there (older Macs aside). I'm a Debian user myself, so you don't have to tell me about the number of platforms a Linux distro may support. Things may change if these new ARM netbooks will take off; until then, we bow to our old x86 overlords.
We do not impose any rules on anyone. We just define the game we're going to play ourselves. Besides, the other distributions will not just, you know, vanish overnight. Linux geeks will always have something to play with; however, this kind of diversity has proven to be unmaintainable when we're targeting Joe Average.
What you say is completely true; however, I find it highly improbable that the kernel developers will change their policies anytime soon. What I suggest is rather a fix to the problem that takes into account unfortunate but quite real constraints, while you're talking about a real solution whose requirements aren't going to be satisfied for quite a while, or so it may seem.
With Ubuntu now in a "just works" state on some hardware
There. Fixed that for you. Unfortunately, my own stats (and I have installed Ubuntu on lots of different hardware configurations) indicate that in only about 30% cases it just works with all the hardware that an average user will immediately notice to fail. Wireless, sound cards, video cards (missing 3d support and more), ACPI quirks... I think that the year of Linux on Desktop will never come, until we realize that we must not go the Microsoft Way - we must go the Apple Way, no matter how absurd as it may sound at first! And maybe Google is trying to do just that - make sure there are several distinct hardware configurations 100% supported by Android, instead of writing software to support everything invented by the mankind.
Would be funny to see your comment join the ranks of famous quotes like "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." and "640kb should be enough for everybody" a few years later, when/if Android beats both Symbian and Windows :-)
are only rare on Earth.
Citation, please?
Time to start asteroid mining.
You do understand, of course, the astronomic (pun intended) price of the resources mined in the asteroid belt?
Can anyone explain to me why is considered bad to have a large foreign debt? As far as I understand, foreign debt means that we receive lots of goods and do not compensate their nation of origin for them, which is the foundation of any colonial economy and has been considered good at all times. What am I missing here, ethical issues aside?
US didn't invade Iraq to drive oil prices down. Judging from the available information, GWB mostly served interests of American oil corporations, which obviously wanted to capture Iraqi oil (to establish a larger market share) and to drive prices up. Good for the sponsors of the ruling party != good for the rest of the American economy.
RMS also needs to realize that we all depend on each other some way; that's what is called civilization.
The problem is, paying for all that computing power, data storage, software development and other stuff may occasionally not be my goal. Sometimes I just want to browse a damn photo gallery or write an online document.
That reminds me of an old Russian joke. A Russian and an American meet and argue about who has better freedom of speech.
American: We have free speech: I can come to the White House and shout "Reagan is an asshole!"
Russian: So do we: I can come to the Kremlin and shout "Reagan is an asshole!", too.
Actually, shielding spacecrafts from the effects of space weather is a real problem! Aah, nothing like the sound of onboard electronics getting fried with a ton of high-speed protons from a coronal mass ejection :-)
Let me guess, you have never used a PDF viewer aside from Adobe Reader? This mistake has been made time and time again: what sucks is the particular implementation, not the file format! Try Foxit if you're a Windows guy, Okular or KPDF if you use KDE, or something else shiny if you're a Mac. You'll see the difference, I promise :-)
another proprietary piece of crap
Wake up, it's 2009 already. Adobe has published the SWF specification (version 10, no less) almost a year ago.
Makes about as much sense as what you said. Javascript libraries do more than just fix browser inconsistencies, they add many useful features and improve a programmer's life significantly.
A "well-run city"? What is that? :-) More importantly, where is that?
Opera is based on Qt, which already does a great job maintaining cross-platform compatibility.
I think that many of us would rather prefer this video (The future is open). Who did the voting, anyway? It even has a remarkably better YouTube rating than the winner; they could use it as a hint at what the masses prefer.
Seoul, one of the greatest free cities on Earth
Uh. South Korea, while being pretty rich and having lots of economical freedom, has less than ok political freedom, at least judging from information available to me. Capitalist + pro-American != free, unless you define "free" as pro-American, which is quite widespread nowadays.
Paying a flat tax on digital music and video would be much more convenient than what we have where I live, as long as it's not ridiculously high. And opt-out is definitely fine with me: they're actually liberating me from the paperwork necessary to opt-in! Again, this may only seem attractive to me and my compatriots, whose lives are often made miserable by monstrous bureaucracy and unavailability of legal online services most of the Western countries are used to.
Of course, this aircraft carrier has nothing to do with this person, who is still alive. Or perhaps Navy isn't a serious governmental organization? My point is that you're plain wrong, no offense meant.
Could as well be as you say; however, since RMS's opinion changed from 'it is free software' to 'that is definitely a problem' during our discussion, I suppose that it had an effect of its own, even if a small one.
Could perfectly be the way you said. However, why it would be such a big deal? Why it would be necessary to present this story as his personal discovery? After all, it's him anyway who does the actual job of preaching/convincing/manipulating/(you name it) the masses.