I believe that when the dust settles on this, Google will at worst be brow beaten by the courts slightly and told to be more careful and they would have spent a lot of money to lawyers to settle the issue once and for all forever over a non question raised by bad boy Oracle.
Oracle on the other hand will have embarrassed itself and fubared the already fubared reputation they already have with the "needed Open Source community". Not only that but having lost the case, being so roundly trounced and made to look more foolish than they did in even attempting this nonsense... API copyrights. they will likely be forked out of any loop with future developments coming down the road. Would you trust a backstabbing raving madman claiming to be an Oracle of omniscience.
They spent a fortune only to settle once and for all an issue best left alone... They were forewarned it might not be in their best interests and did it anyway... Greed pure greed and now everybody knows what their game plan is. In a way :-) Larry got it right some years ago, Linux is unbreakable.
Piracy of films may be something of a problem that needs some kind of solution but this is not it. Lets just set the pathetic MPAA aside for a minute and look at the people behind this proposed Law.
It indicates the level of fear that lawmakers have of freedom itself.
It also is an indication of the low level of education that now runs rampant throughout America. The erosion of higher education is apparent when politicians who usually represent the lowest common denominator in the general population talk of overt fascist policy as though it were some ideal to be espoused as a virtue and nobody laughs at them. They embolden themselves and the population as a whole suffers more, without a clue as to the inevitability of its consequences that leads to the end of all freedoms. At one time intelligent people crafted the Bill of Rights and thought that it would be set in stone. Unfortunately it was never exported to the world and even more unfortunate was the complete failure of the centers of education to take it seriously enough that people would assume it was the actual core of what America was to be about. It take a Highly Educated population to run a technological "democracy" and obviously, were we are, is not it. This is just one more reason that seems to indicate that vigilance to the cause of Freedom, once a sacred concept.... is slipping into some strange new form of a dark age of unenlightened political will towards actual Fascist politics, to the ruin of all.
This bill is an indicator of what that looks like, should it take root as Law.
Lets see this played out and lets see the market decide what their fate will be.
I think they are getting hints now that this is not how to ram a product down the throats of their customers but... Microsoft is just what it is, belligerent.
Even resentful that anybody would question their almighty power to shape the world.
At long last I definitely hear the unmistakable sound of an iceberg striking the side of the Microsoft ships hull, ripping a long self inflicted gash five chambers past repair while they steam full ahead into oblivion. The market sea is a force of nature whose presence and pressure should never be disregarded. Just remember, Microsoft did this to themselves by simply dismissing their customers as mere cattle to be driven to the whims of their presumed office overlords. Work harder, work harder now... Lets just see how this pans out.
We have a first rate use of Blu-ray anyway so it is academic but I would say that the open hostility towards Linux, especially by LoveFilm, precludes our interest in their existence.
We are not hostile but it is very important to body-slam the attitude.
We have netflix but our use is by mail which has always been fine but if Netflix seemed as hostile to Linux, we would dump them pronto on principle alone. Severe? Perhaps... we don't actually need anything like these services but the point *needs* to be made.
4% of the market is not trivial... its money that could be theirs. Anyway that's my little rant... No Linux... no interest in what you offering.
As a user of Linux since 1996 I have seen a lot of changes. Most in time seemed appropriate. I can't say that at the time of them being brought forward to my use I was very happy about them, and I do understand how most people feel comfortable with what is instead of what will be.
I use aptosid Linux. A rolling release... and all things change in time.
What people want is some stability of continuity, not radical revamping with out getting use to the change first.... that is why the grumbling users get mad.
Its the unpredictable change that’s upsetting. but when you look at any technology, any human activity and any history... nothing has ever been static.
Embrace the future, why not, you really do not have a choice if you wish to be were the future is... Linux is reactive to change that is why it survives.
Linux is supremely adaptive. But also understand the past, it is how you know were you are
If AMD generates some kind of cross usability between X86 architecture and that which android specific architecture requires or utilizes then as the PC begins its decent into the past... AMD has perhaps a foot in the door or more... Linux and + android on x86 platforms might well prove formidable.
Use your imagination, Personally i have no use for a tablet as I have a AMD based Linux workstation in X86 - 64... but I find some of the "apps" in android interesting. We can just add them to the already 30,000 applications available in Linux
I know that there are a lot of people who believe they will make it.
And I know that I am a Linux junkie... but in spite of all of the gnashing of teeth and effort on the Microsoft camp. It is too late. The PC is in decline.
Microsoft is sucking as much royalties from Android via litigation as the can now before the courts come crashing down on them. but it is too late.
Don't ask me how I know but this is what I believe. Microsoft spends all of its money on trying to stop Android / Linux and nowhere near enough on decent R&D that yields any real quality. Late to market, poor actual quality, few features of difference. and they have made a lot of genuine corporate enemy’s who will attack at the first sign of weakness.
In two years or less the fade will be obvious to even their most ardent of supporters. I won't be cheering the sinking... Although they deserve it.
It will leave a lot of people, the majority in fact with hopelessly few actual computer skills to adapt to a very different computing landscape.
Did I say it is the beginning of the end for the common PC... yes perhaps the Linux PC as well... Oh I almost forgot android is a somewhat young variation of the future Linux rising. And it is early to its future market.
Based on Linux Android is almost pure innovation...
It is semi open because it represents a substantial amount of threat to the status of Microsoft mobile and those who have a stake in Android are trying to both protect what they have invested in. Much to the anger of the real open source world. That is an indication of just how important Android is becoming. Microsoft is the one who is sucking on the big tit of Android because they have no answer with their "competition by achievement"... Oh sorry they don't have an answer, except instilling fear via gangster tactics.
That is why Microsoft has a whopping 7-17% of the market (depending on who you wish to believe). likely less.
We have a great deal of experience with it since we dumped Microsoft's products 15 years ago. used Star Office and it was pretty rough but we stuck it out and when Open Office started out we switched. We became members of the now defunct ODF. The fork of OO.o to libreOffice was the best thing to happen to it. Currently we are running LibreOffice 3.4.3 - OOO340m1 (Build:302) in aptosid 64bit Linux with the KDE GUI. We never did like Oracle or its attempt to dominate the world. So for us its LibreOffice all the way. It helps to actually learn something about a product before panning it. Like all software... it will be strange and difficult if you are use to something different.
No surprise there... People who are use to MS office are going to find it alien. but all I am saying from using it for a long time... it actually has legs and we think it is going to win in the end... it is a world standard now..
Nice little handset you got there... too bad if something were to happen to it.
Oh you want to use something closely related to Linux. It does not matter we have nothing to do with your Android/Linux... but if you don't want our goons... er, jackboots... er, enforcers to work you over we suggest you pay up. We are top dog and you had better bow down to our overwhelming power. And you thought we were just going to go away quietly... Steve-o has a bat pounding on the chair over there... and he is not happy with you moving in on our planet.
Now pay us before we get mad and rub you into the pavement.
I use aptosid Linux based on Debian sid (unstable due to advanced and experimental state)
I go through many perpetual upgrades continually as that is the nature of an experimental development model - We are the future of your next Linux
that includes the boot loader and the kernel and all of the thousands of applications. If this thing (UEFI) becomes some form of reality what of that.
I smell the scent of a plan here... killing the development of future software by those whose interest lies in the status of what is. A blockade of development. Linux is mobile and changes to fill the needs of society by responding to new hardware with functionality... that is why it is a fast cycle and that explains the hundreds of distro's. Needs vary.... UEFI is a poison pill to that, so it seems to me.
It is the dream of Microsoft to slow down, incapacitate, hobble, cripple, disallow and prevent anything that makes it seem as though there is a choice - to not use their Operating System.
Especially if the competing Linux is somehow better.
Microsoft is not competitive in mobile so it latches on to piggybacking the cost to produce mobile devices by suing the hardware manufacturers that use android, thus raising the cost to consumers and slowing down the demise of the PC by cost offset and generate a profit on the existence of android like the parasites they are.
Even as the gradual death of the PC is soon to be here... if they can somehow prevent or make less easy for a newbie to install Linux they win.
No doubt experienced Linux users will find a work around in time... but slowing down the inevitable, Microsoft wrongly believes that they gain time to make more profit. Perhaps long enough to become the complete parasite upon Linux by whatever means available.
Microsoft was never a good neighbor, not to their partners or to their users. Restrictions, restrictions, restrictions... pay me, pay me more, we want it all.
This is what I have been telling people for years.
Books become the property of those who own the medium.
Digitizing entire libraries then become the property of the those with the means to reproduce them to the viewer.
When you type a document with Microsoft word .doc in the strictest sense it belongs to Microsoft since you used a propriety system to create it... lets put it this way... if the code was not cracked and forced to be open then all the documents created with a word processor is literally owned by the means to read it....
That is just the tip of the iceberg.... way to complex to break it all down here.
However when in a digitized world... if it is not open source with many ways to see and read and hear something.... who owns your works is those who own the mechanism of putting it back into human readability or visibility as the case may be... something to think about.
I find the argument taking place here interesting. And a little disappointing.
If the Creator of the universe were to have a face, perhaps we could call it life itself. Mysterious Unknowable is an American Native expression.
But that expression of respect for what we don't understand was clever enough, by the expression of its presence... gave us a mind to be used to figure out what truth is... the method of its presence expressed as...
humans call it, is science... it removes the element of faith getting in the way of finding out what truth is.
Real science was an invention of the human mind to try and understand how the real universe works. Clever this Mysterious Unknowable force.
If you find that the answers do not jive with what you want to believe by faith, then perhaps an adjustment to the faith may be called for.
Science is also not absolute in is conclusions so the theory gets modified until it works... that is how science is suppose to work.
Faith allows no such instrument of self correction.... Unless it is faith in the mechanism of science.
When an institution of learning or a government allows incursion into itself with a bias towards unquestioning faith, based only on unvalidated religious documents designed only to control human behavior... then trouble in reality sets in.
Thereby slowing the evolution in reality by the human race.
Its not that religion is poison but its inclusion into science is.
Never, ever trust Microsoft. They will bite your backside every time
Microsoft is never to be trusted.
It is a predatory company. It will devour everything in its path and will corrupt all in its wake.
Microsoft's goal is the death of Open Source or its capture.
The only way to prevent that is to never give this "company" any margin of acceptance.
People always want to assume the best in others, that is natural enough.
However, sometimes the reputation and history of something, is its truth.
Nothing about Microsoft has changed... It is on the ropes now, its market and energy is draining... keep it up with relentless pressure and it is just barely possible that this blight on the face of humanity can be relegated to the dustbin of history.
The metaphor of how this company operates has done its part to bring the US and most of the world to its knees technologically. They don't innovate anything, they destroy innovation in all that they touch. look at how they act. Are they a neighbor you want living next to you. When you hear kind and friendly words from them, look behind the words and know that they have a (figuratively speaking) 10 inch dagger just waiting to plunge into your Company's heart at the first moment of viable option.
Watch Steve, the chair throwing potty mouth and see the truth.
They realize that if they get a toe-hold on Debian and Ubuntu... They win.
Why else are they interested.
Microsoft is the proverbial "One Ring to rule them all"... and it is something that needs to be thrown into the fires of Mt Doom. Microsoft *is* entirely evil.
Point of proof... How many company's have they destroyed with Microsoft being all that is left standing when all is said and done.
Point of proof... Do you or Microsoft own the documents you create with their encrypted code in office products... They do... every time the code changes... you had best pay the piper or you can't read what you wrote.
Not archival, not by a long-shot.
Is that the world you want. Everything digital under their control.
Not a byte left unencrypted. Intellectual Property... from their point of view is a and the mechanism of destruction. They want to tax the universe that they did not create one way or another. Microsoft is All Or... Nothing is left standing without Microsoft as the overlords.
It stops when one is committed to just not using their contaminated code.
It stops when enough people say "No, not this time".
It stops when People see them for what they are, not how we would like them to be. Open your eyes. Is Microsoft what you like to see as the example of good behavior.
If not, take the effort, to use anything but Microsoft for digital anything.
Its OK to let Microsoft make Analog toasters... not much to corrupt there.
But if you see a digital toaster and you can't see the code... you know what they are up to.
As an aptosid user (Debian sid rolling release) i got use to the idea of a machine in perpetual development, as a daily driver.
I use KDE 4.4.5 today. Tomorrow it might be 4.4.6, if you get my drift.
A user interface is not written in stone. At first encounter everything may seem strange if one has never used anything except the same old same old.
But I bet you have not had your latest podly or android phone more than 6 months... that's new too. tomorrow it will be different, get use to it.
Fact is... the desktop is evolving into a hybrid of mobile and workstation.
Most of Linux is geared towards the supercomputer and the desktop struggles for a piece of the action with the developers. The PC itself is dying. These new developments with GNOME and KDE are really the only shot at bringing the desktop PC in to a future that is integrated with the new world of the mobile.
My best advice to users of computers is stop thinking of these things as white goods were all the controls are always were they were and doing the same things as your dads machine did. Embrace the future and feel the acceleration of greater power in computing. Put that old Pentium in the dumpster of the past along with MS Win whatever it was.
Linux Rocks in its many forms from android, to some invisible embedded thing running your automobile, to the latest global powerhouse figuring out Quanto-gravitectic hyper-drive in the 4th dimension. Oh by the way, Linux does desktops on a PC... Aren't we lucky it does.
Icons go down hard and thinking of Linux as a reflection of Windows and the dying Microsoft is like not realizing that in computing terms 1995 was in the last millennium. Computers had better look like and act like today's technology today.
A rolling release such as aptosid is more like tomorrows technology today... I'm quite sure that the fine people at Fedora and Red Hat feel the same way. Even if the mechanism of the distribution is a little old school :)
On one hand technology is today an acceleration of doing things with greater capabilities at lower cost than yesterday.
It also means that people need to take a greater amount of time to think about what they are allowing into their lives today. Your choice to stay in the past or not has ramifications.
You do have a choice about that. you do not have one if you choose not to move into the future though, as the rest of the world will pass you by. And it will if you can't integrate your mindset with the new.
Sorry, but just as Luddite became a word... aren't we all just a little bit like that from time to time. Look at your computer as more than an Office sledge hammer and one will see into it the future itself.
I too look at my Western Electric 202 telephone from 1932 and dreamily consider a past that is no more. But I don't stay there long.
I wish the people at GNOME and its users all the best in getting people to let go of the past and move into a new more sophisticated UI.
I look at my (once) beloved KDE 3.5 and now wonder, just what was I thinking so long ago... two years past. change happens.
I'm scared of a changing world... were Governments play a less significant role... because people might discover that communication has unified humanity and Nationalism is more destructive than helpful.
Regulation keeps us in power and the people of the world, powerless and controlled.
Of course it really is more complicated than that reduction... but jerks like this just make me mad at their ignorance. Perhaps they aren't ignorant.
Have you noticed the most regulated internet from the government are also the most restricted populations. Let Freedom be Freedom.
I have been a straight up Debian user for years. Met Mark Shuttleworth a while back and was fairly impressed with what he is attempting to do.
Make a McLinux for everybody. I can't complain too much as I don't use it so it's particulars are somewhat removed from my experience as I am now an aptosid user ( another Debian, based on sid ). Linux can be very stable... in the extreme like an enterprise system its so stable its dead (no change to anything.. all bugs removed)
At the other end there is aptosid ( a rolling release were everyday is a new day and change is the only constant ) that is what I use.
And then in between is the island of Ubuntu. and it is an Island. unto itself.
Based loosely on Debian.... but it is just barely so. Kind of like closed course were spec cars race. you can tune them different ways, some but it is still a spec car.
There are Hundreds of distros out there... Ubuntu is but just one very noticeable flavor. It has its fans and it is a good thing to be so popular as a Linux, it helps bring in new people, but keep in mind it is just a flavor with its particular look and feel and its own aspects of stability.
I am sticking to aptosid as it's config and behavior has more to do with my capabilities rather than a canned version does.
Microsoft by most knowledgeable accounts is a predatory company. When it can't "win" with authentic innovation ( What authentic aspect of x window system did they actually invent )
Then they win by the espousing the worst example of patentable concepts.
An idea expressed as mathematics and logic initiated by others and then stolen into some perversion of law corrupted by modern intent... instead of what the law was created to do so many years ago. Software patents in the modern sense is a perversion of patent law. They and everyone else know it.
Lawyers feed on this perversion to the detriment of the entire world.
Who but a few of the greediest scum of the earth benefit from this.
What a waste of human effort, tens perhaps hundreds of millions of (name your money) blown completely into nothingness... its not the money that matters its the pure waste of human effort trying to fight this official injustice plague of the modern world..
I have a chance to see some of the latest 64bit browser technology using an unstable (advanced and very changing Linux system) aptosid. And my browser of the moment is Firefox 4.2a1-04-13-2011-x86-64 nightly build installed last night. I am using it right now.
Something in an environment like that... needs to be stable as a reference and a standard... html5 seems to be it now.
Videos on vimeo, youtube, BBC and elsewhere all seem to be working well,
Using the new standards... vimeo was not working with Firefox 3.6.18 and told me to get with a "modern" browser. Very funny since they seem to be pushing the envelope the most. Very fine high res videos with taste. And at high frame rates. Sorry, I can't speak to the use of IE whatever... but the current and next standards of the internet seem to work just fine with or without the presence of Microsoft.
I hope that Microsoft finally sees the truth of it all and does not try to gum up the internet with more gubber code of their own creation.
It is not surprising that Microsoft is involved at some level in this, However I hope that it is well understood that their reputation as a extend, embrace and extinguish organization is well understood and watched relentlessly by those who care about the future of standards that are truly open.
Microsoft's contamination of the ISO is well known within the open source community. They will use whatever means available to bias the direction of development towards a proprietary system that excludes everybody that is not under their control. Its their history.
Take a look at what fools they made of the ISO for the most recent evidence of this tactic. It is what they do, it is their nature.
I have used Linux for many years now and find that Debian is the best overall for the needs of stability and usability.
I took an adventurous path about five years ago with the testing branch and just used it without much issue for our company.
Then about 2 years ago wanting to learn more about Linux at the core of the system, I started using (sidux now aptosid) the unstable branch.
I am very pleased with the outcomes although using the unstable branch means I have to know how to be cautious and careful.
Debian goes through such a long and arduous path of development and testing when it gets released it is all but indestructible. Starting with red hat in 1996 Linux has been the best and most rewarding operating system for us.
In my opinion... Debian is the pentacle and it provides enough air above itself to allow adventures of useful learning and experimentation with testing and unstable & experimental to learn and achieve real skills.
Ubuntu needs to recognize openly that it only exists on the mountain of productivity because Debian, is the mountain.
Want to live in space... use aptosid... I am quite happy with it all and with aptosid I have learned more and achieved more skills than anywhere else.
It can be made to be beautiful to use and be very fast. So can Debian be so as well. apt-get it
Microsoft did not like the internet and was not very good with it... until they got their hands on the BSD ip/tcp stuff.
Microsoft is not very good with mobile OS either... as shown by the struggle to stop the world progressing beyond their control... but you know what... its to late for them now as android is going to win in the end.
I do not have any mobile equipment, so there is no skin in on this one... but the outcome is predictably obvious. this is just more of what Microsoft has always done and always will until company’s and people stop paying for their survivability.
When will everybody figure out that this is one cat that cannot change its spots even though they try to be a chameleon.
Its over already... MS is done. they are just flopping on the floor of failure.
As long as windows is taught in the schools they are not teaching computing science... they are teaching Windows.
Does anyone get it?
The US is 27th in computing science.
We are being dumb-ed down and that is very sad.
In 1970 the US was #1 then within ten years MS got into the schools and the Unix wars began... Linux finally rose for the supercomputers, Linux is the future (Linpack anybody) get over it and get on with it.
Congratulations to the Chinese... for a while they deserve laurels.
Wake up America... and UK wake up or get left behind, the world waits for for no nation to sit... and those who squander the young to mac-education deserve to slip into the dustbin of failure.
This is not just about hardware superiority... it is what it runs with as well.
I know that the US is tops in Linux (at lest in some circles, mostly whats left of science, and the national Labs) but dammit, if the schools don't get a clue and hence the culture... its over.
If it were not for vote fixing by Microsoft with the ISO...
OpenOffice would have the only Document format standard that has recognition as a world standard.
Sadly the ISO soiled themselves in the voting process.
I mention this as a observation of the power by corruption that Microsoft uses to buy, steel or otherwise cheat the world of a competent set of document standards that would make everybody’s life just a little bit easier.
I only use open source software with our company, for the last 13 years.
Not once was it a requirement of any agency of any organization that showed any objection to the documents I could produce with OpenOffice or its predecessors over the years.
Years ago I had to be clever with conversions but since version 3.1 OOo
that was history long gone... direct application production as a save for PDF has been in OOo for some time.
As for the schools teaching MS word... The schools failed, not the availability of a genuine ISO standard in documentation. just another sign of the lagging school system and entrenchment of inertia to obsolete thinking.
Fact is OpenOffice works extremely well and its interface only looks familiar... not old... its what people understand, that’s why it looks old.
Is that a problem or something else... nobody was born knowing how to use a word processor.
I give you the ribbon as example number one, of new unfamiliar confusion.
Neither flag the real problem.
Corruption of what the idea of a standard is... Microsoft likes corruption, it permits its existence.
What if Microsoft were to fail as a company... It could happen. Were would you be with their closed source word processor?
Give OpenOffice 3.2x a shot... for the future belongs to that which is... freedom to see and use a genuine world standard.
There are some great people who work for Novell via SuSE.
But if you look at Red Hats success and the so so performance of SUSE Linux.... Who (via Novell) made a deal with Microsoft to cozy up... Made me sick
I wonder if the seed sown then have sprouted their poison ivy. It was why I had to purge SuSE and go pure Debian... No treaties with the Enemy, as it were. No Microsoft in Linux is a mandatory mantra.
None... *ever*.
There are a lot of people who would never install SuSE because of the deal.
I think it was fatal.
But now, The Linux must be protected from serpents of destruction.
Microsoft may be licking there fangs but it would be all to obvious if they did have a real public interest... it would have to be as usual from them to do it covertly... the danger is real... follow the money. Is VMware the right choice.
I see that perhaps a bit of help in understanding what I wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw
It is the largest... hundreds of companies supply code which potentially make it into the kernel.
I stand by what I say... what make it inherently safe is the active participation of those who use it.... trying to make it perfect... no, it can't be done, but the continual effort brings to the development a tenacious and durable code which make it a tough and capable product which represent the best efforts of some of the most clever software people alive.
Flame on, but it is the truth, Linux is the collective effort of a massive broad and diversified interests from around the world. Linux dominates because it is that good. It is in thousands of uses all over the world.
Not to diminish this as having significance, but the Linux kernel is the largest software project on earth... it is always changing... that kind of makes it a moving target as far as exploits are concerned.
Currently it is at 2.6.35.x I think. The system is inherently safe anyway.
Runs FF 3.5.11 normally this week, also runs 4.04b just fine as well.
Sometimes I try something that was just released separately installed, but considering the entire OS is experimental with network builds every other day its not saying much... but they all work great.
This is a 64 bit rolling release system, it is always in upgrade mode.
... is mutually exclusive. Different discussion for another day.
Time marches on... But for those who don't remember "Fleetwood Mac" with Stevie Nicks, had the top selling record of all time, for a long time.
Its too bad that some of the most creative talent was the most popular at a time when transistor technology was at its worst.
Not to be a Luddite or anything but Mp3 barely rates as a format for music.
Even CD's are not competitive with DSD or even SACD.
The recording industry itself is to blame for the demise of the (their) market.
Computer technology is a wonderful dual edged sword that cuts as much as it creates... but what it caused was change. Whether or not it causes a rise in the state of humanity or its fall... is in the hands of a population that is less able to understand the complexity of it as the technology gets more complex, at a time when education is failing to keep up.
Soon machines will design machines (we are already there). And just as young ones now can't do long division anymore in their heads, an appreciation for music itself will be represented with examples of junk for the masses. Feed to them from the major labels losing the intellectual awareness of just what music is, while the lawyers feed on themselves in a greed fest.
Lady Gaga is a terrifying example of the ridiculously bad in both recording technology and cultural taste.
Yes, there is much creative talent in the world today it just can't get out into it without a functional "recording industry" and a less greed oriented culture that drives it. What is needed is a more artistically educated audience that demands some form of quality to the recordings... you-tube is a blessing and a curse... sorry I have no answers, but it is not the internet that is to blame.
I have used Linux for many years at our small company.
There are many ways to contribute to the commonwealth of Linux.
I make donations and help people use it... make a few new users a year.
Also whenever possible when I note something or think I know how to help someone on a forum - I respond.
I have been using sidux (very advanced Debian sid Distro for about two years, before that it was pure Debian for an additional 5 years.) This is out in the frontier of Linux land and I see many changes every day. I was at the Linux con 2009 and see that this is a very active community of company’s and users. I think that in time everybody will see that it helps everyone’s edge in the market to hang together... even if it takes a swift kick in the pants from time to time. The growth of Linux is astounding.
Join up now or get left in the dust... I believe it.
When I worked at Intel they would have air shows over the parking lot.
A brave pilot stood his jet on its tail over head there as well, successfully.
A number of people (myself included) were directly below it about 20 feet off to one side of its vertical, very loud, and very impressive. not so safe, but what the heck... it was great..
My actual comment though was that being in the US I noticed that CNN said that the video was blocked in the US due to Copyright issues. I had to laugh... at the irony and so I left El-reg for a minute to watch it on You tube from about a dozen sources and angles... CNN can go pound sand, "what a bunch of Maroons" (Bugs Bunny) anyway good that the pilot was safe and that there weren't a bunch of yahoos like myself standing underneath it just for the thrill.
It will be resolved. Google is a part of the greater Linux world, it is just having a hard time keeping pace.
The Kernel of Linux is the largest, fastest moving software project, in the history of computers.
That pace is awesome. Most people not involved are simply unaware of the scale of it. Technically speaking... it is history in the making.
speaking at/with Google:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw
It is the kernel... Google needs to keep up, forking is not an option, they know that if they do, it will not be long before they are just left behind.
The browser that interleaves the computer to the web the best.
Most of my browsers are a flavors of Firefox-ish or Firefox specific variants.
I use sidux (based on Debian "unstable" in other words - Most Advanced)
I have used Chrome and watch how it develops, that’s fine. so far its not as good for me as Firefox variant Iceweasel 3.5.10 in 64bit.
Currently my computer is hybrid to the internet as a "stationary desktop" but the important thing to keep in mind that it is permanently dependent of the existence of the internet to function properly and grow.
sidux is a rolling release, every day it gets updated to be as current as the developers make it.
The computer was built literally with a connection to the internet, no boxed software. The Linux OS and its 1,308 applications and programs that make it powerful came from and were dynamically compiled with a connection to the internet, using multiple server with simultaneous connections located in different countries. I can choose between 29,000 applications and programs to make the machine be what I want. All of them from the internet from repositories.
GoogleEarth is a good example of a desktop-internet app.
The whole thing is a 64bit extension of its inter-connectivity to the internet.
As time goes by this trend will increase, not digress backwards in time.
Ubuntu is very similar in its design.
The browser as the extension of the computer is just a GUI interface and needs to be flexible yet secure... in many ways in the future I think it will be the desktop and ones "computer" thick or thin will simply be the machine interface.
From servers and supercomputers to the handpodlys and telepods and desktops of the future Linux will be there one way or another.
It is already there in many ways now. Android is Linux.
Its one world not at war with itself that will make the inter-connectivity of humanity work.
Google will likely be there. closed box systems might not.
IE will not. I think that is a good thing. With any luck MS will evolve into something harmless like a toaster company or better yet just become toast.
Why would I say that... because for company’s such as Microsoft innovation is defined as what ever locks you into their exclusivity of control better.
That is not a better future. Freedom is choice and Open Source is diversity and that freedom is expressed by invention with innovation by developers competing with choices for the customer.
The browser that wins will be adaptive cross platform.
Not real familiar with Flock, but I have tried Chrome, was not impressed at all.
I should mention that it was on sidux 64 bit Linux (based on Debian). However Chrome was a dog in every respect. Perhaps that is not fair as I have made Firefox well tuned for the system and it is basically flawless (Ver 3.5.9).
In my opinion The developers of Flock have made a strategic mistake. Firefox is fast and well developed. Firefox is gaining market share extremely fast in a difficult, mostly entrenched world were FUD is MicroSoft+IE's middle name.
Social networks are potential security nightmares.
And Flock barely registers as even existing in the great ocean that is the internet.
I wonder if Google and Dollars has any involvement...
Oh dear... reading the reply's... A little enlightenment.
Mr Steve likes to play pay particular attention to what his foes do.
Then seems to parrot behavior to mock, if possible. Does not work as well as he might think though.
GNU/Linux and Unix communities use acronyms with abandon... quite often recursive... it's humor and a memory trick like the medieval rope memory game/technique. GNU means Graphical Not Unix.
GIMP = GNU Image Manipulation Program
etc....
So, B.I.N.G. Bing = Bing Is Not Google
It was Steve's way of having a little fun. Or was a Freudian slip as to what his nemesis is. He rightfully thinks Google is connected to the Linux community. His obsession, perhaps, is Linux and anything successful associated with it since Microsoft cannot win on technical merit. BSOD which techies created as an acronym comes to mind, MS hated it for a long time, then wore it as the mantle it is. Along with the very famous Ctrl+Alt+Del... With many types of Linux, Ctrl+Alt+Del will bring up a Que which asks if you actually wanted to log out or were just walking memory lane. :)
It is sad, really, there are some great people (GK-H comes to mind) and products within the Novell sphere of products. Linux is at the heart of all that is good there. And the struggle with SCO-g was/is taxing (just what the SCO and MS gang had in mind)
The cozy deal with MS *IS* the poison apple... the greater Linux community won't let it flow under the bridge which I still think is the reason Novell is where it is now.
... It might be best if IBM were to step in (purchase Novell ) as they have the clout to kick MS in the nuts... and clean out their nose, justly deserved.
I use sidux in 64bit as a full blown KDE 4.4.3 desktop and upgrade every few days as a rolling release.
It may seem subtle for me as it gets better every few days or in chunks for those who upgrade periodically but Linux is very adaptive now. Try it if you can, sooner or later you will.
That adaptivity is due in large part to the awesome kernel. Change is the normal state of the world and few OS react even marginally well, whereas Linux just rocks on.
It really is the largest fastest moving software project in the history of computers and computing science... ever.
For those who don't fully understand and adapt... you will be left behind.
Instead of thinking of trivial things to complain about, while knowing nothing.
You should spend a little time looking at what Linux in its profound number of distributions can actually do.
Other Operating System platforms are just dusted when compared to a properly configured Linux... I not sorry, but that is just the facts as they are.
Movies being made, supercomputing, communications, your cell phone perhaps... that is were Linux lives... more file system adaptability, of course, what did you expect, its the kernel. You want applications? 28,000+ and counting, just look. Wow!
As I have said before and its still true, Linux just gets better every minute of every day.
Some day, if Linux platforms and applications were arrows crossing the sky... their numbers will blot out the sun, metaphorically speaking. Go Linus and everyone else working on this... Linux rocks. I use a still warm to the touch distro made of beta ware by design, I have 1350 applications that make it tick... its fluid and perpetually growing, it does not break or hang ever... What more can I say about how solid this platform is.
Oh No... not poor little clippy, tears running down the face. sigh.
On a more serious note, Our company weened ourselves from all of the treachery of Microsoft many years ago. It is with that in mind that I suggest that anyone who believes in actual standards, that yield positive control of all of their documents, take a serious look at were OpenOffice is today. It is very good and it does the .doc if you really need to be obsolete in your "documents'.
ODF is the smarter (.odt) ISO format for the obvious reasons that much of the world is now requiring an ISO standard. I know... The ISO was corrupted, but look into why and how and the truth of it warns of Microsoft's corruption and all to much power.
The sooner people realize and take action to gain control of the ownership of their documents the sooner the world can watch the Microsoft grip on the world settle down to were it needs to be... at the bottom of the sea.
If you *need* to spend lots of dollars to feel confident in your office productive efforts, Money spent on the Sun / Oracle version of OpenOffice is a wiser choice. Its money well spent.
As far as functionality is concerned, the Microsoft options, as polished as they are, is the sweet poison apple that lures their victims to the lock in fate.
If you have never tried the newer Open Office products... you could be in for quite an eye opener with just how functional it really is.
The help aspects of Open Office work fairly well, so clippy (poor little thing) does not have a home there either. ( didn't Albert fussy head punch clippy in the nose once, I can't remember. )
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Could it be that Oracle is not so good to work for.
Perhaps a lot of people are jumping from Oracle because it is not so good to be on a self destructive ship of fools. just a thought.
Suing for API - as patents ( We own your everything ) might have backfired in more than just concept. Maybe they are running before the walls fall.
speculation in lay terms
I believe that when the dust settles on this, Google will at worst be brow beaten by the courts slightly and told to be more careful and they would have spent a lot of money to lawyers to settle the issue once and for all forever over a non question raised by bad boy Oracle.
Oracle on the other hand will have embarrassed itself and fubared the already fubared reputation they already have with the "needed Open Source community". Not only that but having lost the case, being so roundly trounced and made to look more foolish than they did in even attempting this nonsense... API copyrights. they will likely be forked out of any loop with future developments coming down the road. Would you trust a backstabbing raving madman claiming to be an Oracle of omniscience.
They spent a fortune only to settle once and for all an issue best left alone... They were forewarned it might not be in their best interests and did it anyway... Greed pure greed and now everybody knows what their game plan is. In a way :-) Larry got it right some years ago, Linux is unbreakable.
H.R.3523, Fascism lives here.
Piracy of films may be something of a problem that needs some kind of solution but this is not it. Lets just set the pathetic MPAA aside for a minute and look at the people behind this proposed Law.
It indicates the level of fear that lawmakers have of freedom itself.
It also is an indication of the low level of education that now runs rampant throughout America. The erosion of higher education is apparent when politicians who usually represent the lowest common denominator in the general population talk of overt fascist policy as though it were some ideal to be espoused as a virtue and nobody laughs at them. They embolden themselves and the population as a whole suffers more, without a clue as to the inevitability of its consequences that leads to the end of all freedoms. At one time intelligent people crafted the Bill of Rights and thought that it would be set in stone. Unfortunately it was never exported to the world and even more unfortunate was the complete failure of the centers of education to take it seriously enough that people would assume it was the actual core of what America was to be about. It take a Highly Educated population to run a technological "democracy" and obviously, were we are, is not it. This is just one more reason that seems to indicate that vigilance to the cause of Freedom, once a sacred concept.... is slipping into some strange new form of a dark age of unenlightened political will towards actual Fascist politics, to the ruin of all.
This bill is an indicator of what that looks like, should it take root as Law.
Worst film ever made
Sort of the same difficulty of stating which was the best.
Somewhat subjective based on culture and setting... bad movies can be funny with the right audience, still bad but just funny.
I have seen thousands of films, naming the worst is very hard, there are so many to choose from.
The no excuse one, money can not overcome bad taste and no real plan:
Heaven's Gate - pretentious hubris, ego run out of control.
The $1.98 budget selection:
The Beast of Yucca Flats - I hope someone had fun making this turd.
One small note... even a bad film is hard to make... but making them this bad takes a special talent.
Give Microsoft plenty of rope... err ribbon
Lets see this played out and lets see the market decide what their fate will be.
I think they are getting hints now that this is not how to ram a product down the throats of their customers but... Microsoft is just what it is, belligerent.
Even resentful that anybody would question their almighty power to shape the world.
At long last I definitely hear the unmistakable sound of an iceberg striking the side of the Microsoft ships hull, ripping a long self inflicted gash five chambers past repair while they steam full ahead into oblivion. The market sea is a force of nature whose presence and pressure should never be disregarded. Just remember, Microsoft did this to themselves by simply dismissing their customers as mere cattle to be driven to the whims of their presumed office overlords. Work harder, work harder now... Lets just see how this pans out.
MVA = irrelivent
I tried to make it all the way through this drivel.
My reaction turned sour... I thought about it.
I think I will just get my coat and leave.
Even if I thought MVA was productive, which I don't think it is.
The presentation was dreadful.
enough.
open hostility towards Linux = no intrest
We have a first rate use of Blu-ray anyway so it is academic but I would say that the open hostility towards Linux, especially by LoveFilm, precludes our interest in their existence.
We are not hostile but it is very important to body-slam the attitude.
We have netflix but our use is by mail which has always been fine but if Netflix seemed as hostile to Linux, we would dump them pronto on principle alone. Severe? Perhaps... we don't actually need anything like these services but the point *needs* to be made.
4% of the market is not trivial... its money that could be theirs. Anyway that's my little rant... No Linux... no interest in what you offering.
In the end
The most used word of consequence I see here is... Linux.
I guess that means it won... I'm not surprised.
Linux evolves, nothing is actually static
Linux evolves
As a user of Linux since 1996 I have seen a lot of changes. Most in time seemed appropriate. I can't say that at the time of them being brought forward to my use I was very happy about them, and I do understand how most people feel comfortable with what is instead of what will be.
I use aptosid Linux. A rolling release... and all things change in time.
What people want is some stability of continuity, not radical revamping with out getting use to the change first.... that is why the grumbling users get mad.
Its the unpredictable change that’s upsetting. but when you look at any technology, any human activity and any history... nothing has ever been static.
Embrace the future, why not, you really do not have a choice if you wish to be were the future is... Linux is reactive to change that is why it survives.
Linux is supremely adaptive. But also understand the past, it is how you know were you are
Host/Kernel/OS "Eyland1" running Linux 3.1-6.slh.1-aptosid-amd64 x86_64 [ aptosid 2011-02 Ἡμέρα - kde-lite - (201107131633) ]
AMD sees an opertunity
If AMD generates some kind of cross usability between X86 architecture and that which android specific architecture requires or utilizes then as the PC begins its decent into the past... AMD has perhaps a foot in the door or more... Linux and + android on x86 platforms might well prove formidable.
Use your imagination, Personally i have no use for a tablet as I have a AMD based Linux workstation in X86 - 64... but I find some of the "apps" in android interesting. We can just add them to the already 30,000 applications available in Linux
Just Imagine... Its not so hard to do...
A world with out Windows.
I know that there are a lot of people who believe they will make it.
And I know that I am a Linux junkie... but in spite of all of the gnashing of teeth and effort on the Microsoft camp. It is too late. The PC is in decline.
Microsoft is sucking as much royalties from Android via litigation as the can now before the courts come crashing down on them. but it is too late.
Don't ask me how I know but this is what I believe. Microsoft spends all of its money on trying to stop Android / Linux and nowhere near enough on decent R&D that yields any real quality. Late to market, poor actual quality, few features of difference. and they have made a lot of genuine corporate enemy’s who will attack at the first sign of weakness.
In two years or less the fade will be obvious to even their most ardent of supporters. I won't be cheering the sinking... Although they deserve it.
It will leave a lot of people, the majority in fact with hopelessly few actual computer skills to adapt to a very different computing landscape.
Did I say it is the beginning of the end for the common PC... yes perhaps the Linux PC as well... Oh I almost forgot android is a somewhat young variation of the future Linux rising. And it is early to its future market.
Android is an invention
@ David Kelly Are you serious?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13409993
Based on Linux Android is almost pure innovation...
It is semi open because it represents a substantial amount of threat to the status of Microsoft mobile and those who have a stake in Android are trying to both protect what they have invested in. Much to the anger of the real open source world. That is an indication of just how important Android is becoming. Microsoft is the one who is sucking on the big tit of Android because they have no answer with their "competition by achievement"... Oh sorry they don't have an answer, except instilling fear via gangster tactics.
That is why Microsoft has a whopping 7-17% of the market (depending on who you wish to believe). likely less.
LibreOffice is a tremendous product
We have a great deal of experience with it since we dumped Microsoft's products 15 years ago. used Star Office and it was pretty rough but we stuck it out and when Open Office started out we switched. We became members of the now defunct ODF. The fork of OO.o to libreOffice was the best thing to happen to it. Currently we are running LibreOffice 3.4.3 - OOO340m1 (Build:302) in aptosid 64bit Linux with the KDE GUI. We never did like Oracle or its attempt to dominate the world. So for us its LibreOffice all the way. It helps to actually learn something about a product before panning it. Like all software... it will be strange and difficult if you are use to something different.
No surprise there... People who are use to MS office are going to find it alien. but all I am saying from using it for a long time... it actually has legs and we think it is going to win in the end... it is a world standard now..
ISO/IEC 26300:2006
Pure mobisoft behaviorism
Nice little handset you got there... too bad if something were to happen to it.
Oh you want to use something closely related to Linux. It does not matter we have nothing to do with your Android/Linux... but if you don't want our goons... er, jackboots... er, enforcers to work you over we suggest you pay up. We are top dog and you had better bow down to our overwhelming power. And you thought we were just going to go away quietly... Steve-o has a bat pounding on the chair over there... and he is not happy with you moving in on our planet.
Now pay us before we get mad and rub you into the pavement.
A rolling release is my reality (problem is real)
A point that affects some of us, is that reality.
I use aptosid Linux based on Debian sid (unstable due to advanced and experimental state)
I go through many perpetual upgrades continually as that is the nature of an experimental development model - We are the future of your next Linux
that includes the boot loader and the kernel and all of the thousands of applications. If this thing (UEFI) becomes some form of reality what of that.
I smell the scent of a plan here... killing the development of future software by those whose interest lies in the status of what is. A blockade of development. Linux is mobile and changes to fill the needs of society by responding to new hardware with functionality... that is why it is a fast cycle and that explains the hundreds of distro's. Needs vary.... UEFI is a poison pill to that, so it seems to me.
Microsoft does not know how to be "good"
It is the dream of Microsoft to slow down, incapacitate, hobble, cripple, disallow and prevent anything that makes it seem as though there is a choice - to not use their Operating System.
Especially if the competing Linux is somehow better.
Microsoft is not competitive in mobile so it latches on to piggybacking the cost to produce mobile devices by suing the hardware manufacturers that use android, thus raising the cost to consumers and slowing down the demise of the PC by cost offset and generate a profit on the existence of android like the parasites they are.
Even as the gradual death of the PC is soon to be here... if they can somehow prevent or make less easy for a newbie to install Linux they win.
No doubt experienced Linux users will find a work around in time... but slowing down the inevitable, Microsoft wrongly believes that they gain time to make more profit. Perhaps long enough to become the complete parasite upon Linux by whatever means available.
Microsoft was never a good neighbor, not to their partners or to their users. Restrictions, restrictions, restrictions... pay me, pay me more, we want it all.
KDE is back in the saddle as far as I am concerned.
Linus is right.
I gave up on GNOME some time ago.
I gave it a shot when the force of KDE was interrupted (4.0)... and ran a hybrid for a while with Debian as the main distro.
I became increasingly frustrated with Gnome after about a year.
I run aptosid now (still a Debian based distro) with a pure KDE environment and am very happy with it.
Development Platform KDE 4.6.5.
Running Linux 3.0-0.slh.8-aptosid-amd64 x86_64 [ aptosid 2011-01 Γῆρας - kde-lite - (201102051540) ]
I am resisting calling Gnome something currently unholy since that would be attributing it with features it never had to begin with.
I hope for all the Linux people out there that like GNOME... The gnome group takes heed of the warnings from on high.
Being different should be better than the alternatives, not less than you once were.
DRM = poision
This is what I have been telling people for years.
Books become the property of those who own the medium.
Digitizing entire libraries then become the property of the those with the means to reproduce them to the viewer.
When you type a document with Microsoft word .doc in the strictest sense it belongs to Microsoft since you used a propriety system to create it... lets put it this way... if the code was not cracked and forced to be open then all the documents created with a word processor is literally owned by the means to read it....
That is just the tip of the iceberg.... way to complex to break it all down here.
However when in a digitized world... if it is not open source with many ways to see and read and hear something.... who owns your works is those who own the mechanism of putting it back into human readability or visibility as the case may be... something to think about.
Faith is not science
by definition.
I find the argument taking place here interesting. And a little disappointing.
If the Creator of the universe were to have a face, perhaps we could call it life itself. Mysterious Unknowable is an American Native expression.
But that expression of respect for what we don't understand was clever enough, by the expression of its presence... gave us a mind to be used to figure out what truth is... the method of its presence expressed as...
humans call it, is science... it removes the element of faith getting in the way of finding out what truth is.
Real science was an invention of the human mind to try and understand how the real universe works. Clever this Mysterious Unknowable force.
If you find that the answers do not jive with what you want to believe by faith, then perhaps an adjustment to the faith may be called for.
Science is also not absolute in is conclusions so the theory gets modified until it works... that is how science is suppose to work.
Faith allows no such instrument of self correction.... Unless it is faith in the mechanism of science.
When an institution of learning or a government allows incursion into itself with a bias towards unquestioning faith, based only on unvalidated religious documents designed only to control human behavior... then trouble in reality sets in.
Thereby slowing the evolution in reality by the human race.
Its not that religion is poison but its inclusion into science is.
Never, ever trust Microsoft. They will bite your backside every time
Microsoft is never to be trusted.
It is a predatory company. It will devour everything in its path and will corrupt all in its wake.
Microsoft's goal is the death of Open Source or its capture.
The only way to prevent that is to never give this "company" any margin of acceptance.
People always want to assume the best in others, that is natural enough.
However, sometimes the reputation and history of something, is its truth.
Nothing about Microsoft has changed... It is on the ropes now, its market and energy is draining... keep it up with relentless pressure and it is just barely possible that this blight on the face of humanity can be relegated to the dustbin of history.
The metaphor of how this company operates has done its part to bring the US and most of the world to its knees technologically. They don't innovate anything, they destroy innovation in all that they touch. look at how they act. Are they a neighbor you want living next to you. When you hear kind and friendly words from them, look behind the words and know that they have a (figuratively speaking) 10 inch dagger just waiting to plunge into your Company's heart at the first moment of viable option.
Watch Steve, the chair throwing potty mouth and see the truth.
They realize that if they get a toe-hold on Debian and Ubuntu... They win.
Why else are they interested.
Microsoft is the proverbial "One Ring to rule them all"... and it is something that needs to be thrown into the fires of Mt Doom. Microsoft *is* entirely evil.
Point of proof... How many company's have they destroyed with Microsoft being all that is left standing when all is said and done.
Point of proof... Do you or Microsoft own the documents you create with their encrypted code in office products... They do... every time the code changes... you had best pay the piper or you can't read what you wrote.
Not archival, not by a long-shot.
Is that the world you want. Everything digital under their control.
Not a byte left unencrypted. Intellectual Property... from their point of view is a and the mechanism of destruction. They want to tax the universe that they did not create one way or another. Microsoft is All Or... Nothing is left standing without Microsoft as the overlords.
It stops when one is committed to just not using their contaminated code.
It stops when enough people say "No, not this time".
It stops when People see them for what they are, not how we would like them to be. Open your eyes. Is Microsoft what you like to see as the example of good behavior.
If not, take the effort, to use anything but Microsoft for digital anything.
Its OK to let Microsoft make Analog toasters... not much to corrupt there.
But if you see a digital toaster and you can't see the code... you know what they are up to.
Never take your eyes off of them.
Skype is no longer under consideration
Once I found out that skype was soon to be owned - run by Microsoft.
All consideration of it as a useful product or voip with video was dropped.
We use Linux in our company and are proud to say and show that Microsoft is a non starter for anything we do. Skype is dead for us.
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Always looking towards the future
As an aptosid user (Debian sid rolling release) i got use to the idea of a machine in perpetual development, as a daily driver.
I use KDE 4.4.5 today. Tomorrow it might be 4.4.6, if you get my drift.
A user interface is not written in stone. At first encounter everything may seem strange if one has never used anything except the same old same old.
But I bet you have not had your latest podly or android phone more than 6 months... that's new too. tomorrow it will be different, get use to it.
Fact is... the desktop is evolving into a hybrid of mobile and workstation.
Most of Linux is geared towards the supercomputer and the desktop struggles for a piece of the action with the developers. The PC itself is dying. These new developments with GNOME and KDE are really the only shot at bringing the desktop PC in to a future that is integrated with the new world of the mobile.
My best advice to users of computers is stop thinking of these things as white goods were all the controls are always were they were and doing the same things as your dads machine did. Embrace the future and feel the acceleration of greater power in computing. Put that old Pentium in the dumpster of the past along with MS Win whatever it was.
Linux Rocks in its many forms from android, to some invisible embedded thing running your automobile, to the latest global powerhouse figuring out Quanto-gravitectic hyper-drive in the 4th dimension. Oh by the way, Linux does desktops on a PC... Aren't we lucky it does.
Icons go down hard and thinking of Linux as a reflection of Windows and the dying Microsoft is like not realizing that in computing terms 1995 was in the last millennium. Computers had better look like and act like today's technology today.
A rolling release such as aptosid is more like tomorrows technology today... I'm quite sure that the fine people at Fedora and Red Hat feel the same way. Even if the mechanism of the distribution is a little old school :)
On one hand technology is today an acceleration of doing things with greater capabilities at lower cost than yesterday.
It also means that people need to take a greater amount of time to think about what they are allowing into their lives today. Your choice to stay in the past or not has ramifications.
You do have a choice about that. you do not have one if you choose not to move into the future though, as the rest of the world will pass you by. And it will if you can't integrate your mindset with the new.
Sorry, but just as Luddite became a word... aren't we all just a little bit like that from time to time. Look at your computer as more than an Office sledge hammer and one will see into it the future itself.
I too look at my Western Electric 202 telephone from 1932 and dreamily consider a past that is no more. But I don't stay there long.
I wish the people at GNOME and its users all the best in getting people to let go of the past and move into a new more sophisticated UI.
I look at my (once) beloved KDE 3.5 and now wonder, just what was I thinking so long ago... two years past. change happens.
What he is really saying
I'm scared of a changing world... were Governments play a less significant role... because people might discover that communication has unified humanity and Nationalism is more destructive than helpful.
Regulation keeps us in power and the people of the world, powerless and controlled.
Of course it really is more complicated than that reduction... but jerks like this just make me mad at their ignorance. Perhaps they aren't ignorant.
Have you noticed the most regulated internet from the government are also the most restricted populations. Let Freedom be Freedom.
Old Debian user
I have been a straight up Debian user for years. Met Mark Shuttleworth a while back and was fairly impressed with what he is attempting to do.
Make a McLinux for everybody. I can't complain too much as I don't use it so it's particulars are somewhat removed from my experience as I am now an aptosid user ( another Debian, based on sid ). Linux can be very stable... in the extreme like an enterprise system its so stable its dead (no change to anything.. all bugs removed)
At the other end there is aptosid ( a rolling release were everyday is a new day and change is the only constant ) that is what I use.
And then in between is the island of Ubuntu. and it is an Island. unto itself.
Based loosely on Debian.... but it is just barely so. Kind of like closed course were spec cars race. you can tune them different ways, some but it is still a spec car.
There are Hundreds of distros out there... Ubuntu is but just one very noticeable flavor. It has its fans and it is a good thing to be so popular as a Linux, it helps bring in new people, but keep in mind it is just a flavor with its particular look and feel and its own aspects of stability.
I am sticking to aptosid as it's config and behavior has more to do with my capabilities rather than a canned version does.
Watching the preditory by nature, Watch Microsoft
Microsoft by most knowledgeable accounts is a predatory company. When it can't "win" with authentic innovation ( What authentic aspect of x window system did they actually invent )
Then they win by the espousing the worst example of patentable concepts.
An idea expressed as mathematics and logic initiated by others and then stolen into some perversion of law corrupted by modern intent... instead of what the law was created to do so many years ago. Software patents in the modern sense is a perversion of patent law. They and everyone else know it.
Lawyers feed on this perversion to the detriment of the entire world.
Who but a few of the greediest scum of the earth benefit from this.
What a waste of human effort, tens perhaps hundreds of millions of (name your money) blown completely into nothingness... its not the money that matters its the pure waste of human effort trying to fight this official injustice plague of the modern world..
html5 and browsers
I have a chance to see some of the latest 64bit browser technology using an unstable (advanced and very changing Linux system) aptosid. And my browser of the moment is Firefox 4.2a1-04-13-2011-x86-64 nightly build installed last night. I am using it right now.
Something in an environment like that... needs to be stable as a reference and a standard... html5 seems to be it now.
Videos on vimeo, youtube, BBC and elsewhere all seem to be working well,
Using the new standards... vimeo was not working with Firefox 3.6.18 and told me to get with a "modern" browser. Very funny since they seem to be pushing the envelope the most. Very fine high res videos with taste. And at high frame rates. Sorry, I can't speak to the use of IE whatever... but the current and next standards of the internet seem to work just fine with or without the presence of Microsoft.
I hope that Microsoft finally sees the truth of it all and does not try to gum up the internet with more gubber code of their own creation.
Linux for utility computing (clouds)
It is not surprising that Microsoft is involved at some level in this, However I hope that it is well understood that their reputation as a extend, embrace and extinguish organization is well understood and watched relentlessly by those who care about the future of standards that are truly open.
Microsoft's contamination of the ISO is well known within the open source community. They will use whatever means available to bias the direction of development towards a proprietary system that excludes everybody that is not under their control. Its their history.
Take a look at what fools they made of the ISO for the most recent evidence of this tactic. It is what they do, it is their nature.
Go debian go
I have used Linux for many years now and find that Debian is the best overall for the needs of stability and usability.
I took an adventurous path about five years ago with the testing branch and just used it without much issue for our company.
Then about 2 years ago wanting to learn more about Linux at the core of the system, I started using (sidux now aptosid) the unstable branch.
I am very pleased with the outcomes although using the unstable branch means I have to know how to be cautious and careful.
Debian goes through such a long and arduous path of development and testing when it gets released it is all but indestructible. Starting with red hat in 1996 Linux has been the best and most rewarding operating system for us.
In my opinion... Debian is the pentacle and it provides enough air above itself to allow adventures of useful learning and experimentation with testing and unstable & experimental to learn and achieve real skills.
Ubuntu needs to recognize openly that it only exists on the mountain of productivity because Debian, is the mountain.
Want to live in space... use aptosid... I am quite happy with it all and with aptosid I have learned more and achieved more skills than anywhere else.
It can be made to be beautiful to use and be very fast. So can Debian be so as well. apt-get it
Windows mob...ile
Microsoft did not like the internet and was not very good with it... until they got their hands on the BSD ip/tcp stuff.
Microsoft is not very good with mobile OS either... as shown by the struggle to stop the world progressing beyond their control... but you know what... its to late for them now as android is going to win in the end.
I do not have any mobile equipment, so there is no skin in on this one... but the outcome is predictably obvious. this is just more of what Microsoft has always done and always will until company’s and people stop paying for their survivability.
When will everybody figure out that this is one cat that cannot change its spots even though they try to be a chameleon.
Its over already... MS is done. they are just flopping on the floor of failure.
MicrosoftPCsI pay for my Linux :)
I make contributions to the distributions of Linux I use.
I feel that is right. I am not a programer. I modify some scripts that is all.
But to the point, I feel happy to pay a contribution for the hard work of those who work on the distro I use (aptosid).
It is what our company and I personally use for all of our computing needs.
It free as in freedom not beer.
Its the right thing to do. Use Windows, pay the piper. Use Linux, pay the developers. whats the difference... at least Linux works.
I'd rather volunteer some money for what I like... its better than extortion for junk like MS.
The US had better get with it- fast
As long as windows is taught in the schools they are not teaching computing science... they are teaching Windows.
Does anyone get it?
The US is 27th in computing science.
We are being dumb-ed down and that is very sad.
In 1970 the US was #1 then within ten years MS got into the schools and the Unix wars began... Linux finally rose for the supercomputers, Linux is the future (Linpack anybody) get over it and get on with it.
Congratulations to the Chinese... for a while they deserve laurels.
Wake up America... and UK wake up or get left behind, the world waits for for no nation to sit... and those who squander the young to mac-education deserve to slip into the dustbin of failure.
This is not just about hardware superiority... it is what it runs with as well.
I know that the US is tops in Linux (at lest in some circles, mostly whats left of science, and the national Labs) but dammit, if the schools don't get a clue and hence the culture... its over.
World standard OOo
If it were not for vote fixing by Microsoft with the ISO...
OpenOffice would have the only Document format standard that has recognition as a world standard.
Sadly the ISO soiled themselves in the voting process.
I mention this as a observation of the power by corruption that Microsoft uses to buy, steel or otherwise cheat the world of a competent set of document standards that would make everybody’s life just a little bit easier.
I only use open source software with our company, for the last 13 years.
Not once was it a requirement of any agency of any organization that showed any objection to the documents I could produce with OpenOffice or its predecessors over the years.
Years ago I had to be clever with conversions but since version 3.1 OOo
that was history long gone... direct application production as a save for PDF has been in OOo for some time.
As for the schools teaching MS word... The schools failed, not the availability of a genuine ISO standard in documentation. just another sign of the lagging school system and entrenchment of inertia to obsolete thinking.
Fact is OpenOffice works extremely well and its interface only looks familiar... not old... its what people understand, that’s why it looks old.
Is that a problem or something else... nobody was born knowing how to use a word processor.
I give you the ribbon as example number one, of new unfamiliar confusion.
Neither flag the real problem.
Corruption of what the idea of a standard is... Microsoft likes corruption, it permits its existence.
What if Microsoft were to fail as a company... It could happen. Were would you be with their closed source word processor?
Give OpenOffice 3.2x a shot... for the future belongs to that which is... freedom to see and use a genuine world standard.
Novell and SuSE Linux
There are some great people who work for Novell via SuSE.
But if you look at Red Hats success and the so so performance of SUSE Linux.... Who (via Novell) made a deal with Microsoft to cozy up... Made me sick
I wonder if the seed sown then have sprouted their poison ivy. It was why I had to purge SuSE and go pure Debian... No treaties with the Enemy, as it were. No Microsoft in Linux is a mandatory mantra.
None... *ever*.
There are a lot of people who would never install SuSE because of the deal.
I think it was fatal.
But now, The Linux must be protected from serpents of destruction.
Microsoft may be licking there fangs but it would be all to obvious if they did have a real public interest... it would have to be as usual from them to do it covertly... the danger is real... follow the money. Is VMware the right choice.
Follow the money.
Largest software project ever - yes
I see that perhaps a bit of help in understanding what I wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw
It is the largest... hundreds of companies supply code which potentially make it into the kernel.
I stand by what I say... what make it inherently safe is the active participation of those who use it.... trying to make it perfect... no, it can't be done, but the continual effort brings to the development a tenacious and durable code which make it a tough and capable product which represent the best efforts of some of the most clever software people alive.
Flame on, but it is the truth, Linux is the collective effort of a massive broad and diversified interests from around the world. Linux dominates because it is that good. It is in thousands of uses all over the world.
linux kernel
Grows and changes every three-ish months.
Not to diminish this as having significance, but the Linux kernel is the largest software project on earth... it is always changing... that kind of makes it a moving target as far as exploits are concerned.
Currently it is at 2.6.35.x I think. The system is inherently safe anyway.
64 bit Debian - Derivative sidux
Runs FF 3.5.11 normally this week, also runs 4.04b just fine as well.
Sometimes I try something that was just released separately installed, but considering the entire OS is experimental with network builds every other day its not saying much... but they all work great.
This is a 64 bit rolling release system, it is always in upgrade mode.
Mp3's and music...
... is mutually exclusive. Different discussion for another day.
Time marches on... But for those who don't remember "Fleetwood Mac" with Stevie Nicks, had the top selling record of all time, for a long time.
Its too bad that some of the most creative talent was the most popular at a time when transistor technology was at its worst.
Not to be a Luddite or anything but Mp3 barely rates as a format for music.
Even CD's are not competitive with DSD or even SACD.
The recording industry itself is to blame for the demise of the (their) market.
Computer technology is a wonderful dual edged sword that cuts as much as it creates... but what it caused was change. Whether or not it causes a rise in the state of humanity or its fall... is in the hands of a population that is less able to understand the complexity of it as the technology gets more complex, at a time when education is failing to keep up.
Soon machines will design machines (we are already there). And just as young ones now can't do long division anymore in their heads, an appreciation for music itself will be represented with examples of junk for the masses. Feed to them from the major labels losing the intellectual awareness of just what music is, while the lawyers feed on themselves in a greed fest.
Lady Gaga is a terrifying example of the ridiculously bad in both recording technology and cultural taste.
Yes, there is much creative talent in the world today it just can't get out into it without a functional "recording industry" and a less greed oriented culture that drives it. What is needed is a more artistically educated audience that demands some form of quality to the recordings... you-tube is a blessing and a curse... sorry I have no answers, but it is not the internet that is to blame.
@shane
Ubuntu is based on Debian, which supports many architectures.
Dropping SPARC... may be a political stab at Oracle, that bought Sun and then is dropping everything (Sun) that does not serve Oracle's purpose.
Ubuntu had a relationship with Sun... that no longer exists.
Oracle is driven by self-serving interests, that bare watching, closely.
Sun had an interest in Ubuntu because it is both popular and powerful.
I believe that the article is mostly right
I have used Linux for many years at our small company.
There are many ways to contribute to the commonwealth of Linux.
I make donations and help people use it... make a few new users a year.
Also whenever possible when I note something or think I know how to help someone on a forum - I respond.
I have been using sidux (very advanced Debian sid Distro for about two years, before that it was pure Debian for an additional 5 years.) This is out in the frontier of Linux land and I see many changes every day. I was at the Linux con 2009 and see that this is a very active community of company’s and users. I think that in time everybody will see that it helps everyone’s edge in the market to hang together... even if it takes a swift kick in the pants from time to time. The growth of Linux is astounding.
Join up now or get left in the dust... I believe it.
non emotional experience
Real computers, toys, and the selling to the masses,
Why is the Linux kernel the choice for super computers ?
it does the job.
The original DOS was selected because it was incapable of competing against UNIX. IBM was wise.
NT was chosen by Microsoft because it was not UNIX and they believed it was good enough to be competitive (with Intel's help - oops)
NEXT was too early
UNIX is the evolutionary predecessor to is non clone Linux (Unix like)
Microsoft is toast because they were never competitive technically
Amiga (never marketed well in its functional life)
unix - is dying slowly only because its wild child replacement is still a teenager rebel in the minds of the old school thinkers. (Linux)
Linux became because the world really does need something that works.
Linux is what is found on REAL computers today. go look.
Why else do you think that it... and none of the others, is the largest, fastest moving software project in the history of computing...
Its Linux flexibility and its awesome GPL It will survive its attackers because it has all of the right aspects to survive...
all the rest is marketing.
Nobody hurt, thats good
When I worked at Intel they would have air shows over the parking lot.
A brave pilot stood his jet on its tail over head there as well, successfully.
A number of people (myself included) were directly below it about 20 feet off to one side of its vertical, very loud, and very impressive. not so safe, but what the heck... it was great..
My actual comment though was that being in the US I noticed that CNN said that the video was blocked in the US due to Copyright issues. I had to laugh... at the irony and so I left El-reg for a minute to watch it on You tube from about a dozen sources and angles... CNN can go pound sand, "what a bunch of Maroons" (Bugs Bunny) anyway good that the pilot was safe and that there weren't a bunch of yahoos like myself standing underneath it just for the thrill.
:)
The scale of Linux (Kernel) is enormous
It will be resolved. Google is a part of the greater Linux world, it is just having a hard time keeping pace.
The Kernel of Linux is the largest, fastest moving software project, in the history of computers.
That pace is awesome. Most people not involved are simply unaware of the scale of it. Technically speaking... it is history in the making.
speaking at/with Google:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw
It is the kernel... Google needs to keep up, forking is not an option, they know that if they do, it will not be long before they are just left behind.
Run Google / Android, run fast.
open core is NOT Open
Just a notion, time will tell but ultimately open core is the kiss of failure.
I think it falls into that camp called deception.
Open Source is Open.
Open Core is closed in any real functionality that avoids Vender lockin.
it is about market capture using the sweet smell of functionality (but with the price of no choice)
it is designed to snare the unaware. NASA is being smart in dumping open (trap) core for all of the obvious reasons.
And the winner is...
The browser that interleaves the computer to the web the best.
Most of my browsers are a flavors of Firefox-ish or Firefox specific variants.
I use sidux (based on Debian "unstable" in other words - Most Advanced)
I have used Chrome and watch how it develops, that’s fine. so far its not as good for me as Firefox variant Iceweasel 3.5.10 in 64bit.
Currently my computer is hybrid to the internet as a "stationary desktop" but the important thing to keep in mind that it is permanently dependent of the existence of the internet to function properly and grow.
sidux is a rolling release, every day it gets updated to be as current as the developers make it.
The computer was built literally with a connection to the internet, no boxed software. The Linux OS and its 1,308 applications and programs that make it powerful came from and were dynamically compiled with a connection to the internet, using multiple server with simultaneous connections located in different countries. I can choose between 29,000 applications and programs to make the machine be what I want. All of them from the internet from repositories.
GoogleEarth is a good example of a desktop-internet app.
The whole thing is a 64bit extension of its inter-connectivity to the internet.
As time goes by this trend will increase, not digress backwards in time.
Ubuntu is very similar in its design.
The browser as the extension of the computer is just a GUI interface and needs to be flexible yet secure... in many ways in the future I think it will be the desktop and ones "computer" thick or thin will simply be the machine interface.
From servers and supercomputers to the handpodlys and telepods and desktops of the future Linux will be there one way or another.
It is already there in many ways now. Android is Linux.
Its one world not at war with itself that will make the inter-connectivity of humanity work.
Google will likely be there. closed box systems might not.
IE will not. I think that is a good thing. With any luck MS will evolve into something harmless like a toaster company or better yet just become toast.
Why would I say that... because for company’s such as Microsoft innovation is defined as what ever locks you into their exclusivity of control better.
That is not a better future. Freedom is choice and Open Source is diversity and that freedom is expressed by invention with innovation by developers competing with choices for the customer.
The browser that wins will be adaptive cross platform.
The word flock implies sheep
Not real familiar with Flock, but I have tried Chrome, was not impressed at all.
I should mention that it was on sidux 64 bit Linux (based on Debian). However Chrome was a dog in every respect. Perhaps that is not fair as I have made Firefox well tuned for the system and it is basically flawless (Ver 3.5.9).
In my opinion The developers of Flock have made a strategic mistake. Firefox is fast and well developed. Firefox is gaining market share extremely fast in a difficult, mostly entrenched world were FUD is MicroSoft+IE's middle name.
Social networks are potential security nightmares.
And Flock barely registers as even existing in the great ocean that is the internet.
I wonder if Google and Dollars has any involvement...
BING - the name
Oh dear... reading the reply's... A little enlightenment.
Mr Steve likes to play pay particular attention to what his foes do.
Then seems to parrot behavior to mock, if possible. Does not work as well as he might think though.
GNU/Linux and Unix communities use acronyms with abandon... quite often recursive... it's humor and a memory trick like the medieval rope memory game/technique. GNU means Graphical Not Unix.
GIMP = GNU Image Manipulation Program
etc....
So, B.I.N.G. Bing = Bing Is Not Google
It was Steve's way of having a little fun. Or was a Freudian slip as to what his nemesis is. He rightfully thinks Google is connected to the Linux community. His obsession, perhaps, is Linux and anything successful associated with it since Microsoft cannot win on technical merit. BSOD which techies created as an acronym comes to mind, MS hated it for a long time, then wore it as the mantle it is. Along with the very famous Ctrl+Alt+Del... With many types of Linux, Ctrl+Alt+Del will bring up a Que which asks if you actually wanted to log out or were just walking memory lane. :)
Novell is... what?
It is sad, really, there are some great people (GK-H comes to mind) and products within the Novell sphere of products. Linux is at the heart of all that is good there. And the struggle with SCO-g was/is taxing (just what the SCO and MS gang had in mind)
The cozy deal with MS *IS* the poison apple... the greater Linux community won't let it flow under the bridge which I still think is the reason Novell is where it is now.
... It might be best if IBM were to step in (purchase Novell ) as they have the clout to kick MS in the nuts... and clean out their nose, justly deserved.
Everyone is watching.
currently running 2.6.34.x
I use sidux in 64bit as a full blown KDE 4.4.3 desktop and upgrade every few days as a rolling release.
It may seem subtle for me as it gets better every few days or in chunks for those who upgrade periodically but Linux is very adaptive now. Try it if you can, sooner or later you will.
That adaptivity is due in large part to the awesome kernel. Change is the normal state of the world and few OS react even marginally well, whereas Linux just rocks on.
It really is the largest fastest moving software project in the history of computers and computing science... ever.
For those who don't fully understand and adapt... you will be left behind.
Instead of thinking of trivial things to complain about, while knowing nothing.
You should spend a little time looking at what Linux in its profound number of distributions can actually do.
Other Operating System platforms are just dusted when compared to a properly configured Linux... I not sorry, but that is just the facts as they are.
Movies being made, supercomputing, communications, your cell phone perhaps... that is were Linux lives... more file system adaptability, of course, what did you expect, its the kernel. You want applications? 28,000+ and counting, just look. Wow!
As I have said before and its still true, Linux just gets better every minute of every day.
Some day, if Linux platforms and applications were arrows crossing the sky... their numbers will blot out the sun, metaphorically speaking. Go Linus and everyone else working on this... Linux rocks. I use a still warm to the touch distro made of beta ware by design, I have 1350 applications that make it tick... its fluid and perpetually growing, it does not break or hang ever... What more can I say about how solid this platform is.
That's it.
OpenOffice is open :)
Oh No... not poor little clippy, tears running down the face. sigh.
On a more serious note, Our company weened ourselves from all of the treachery of Microsoft many years ago. It is with that in mind that I suggest that anyone who believes in actual standards, that yield positive control of all of their documents, take a serious look at were OpenOffice is today. It is very good and it does the .doc if you really need to be obsolete in your "documents'.
ODF is the smarter (.odt) ISO format for the obvious reasons that much of the world is now requiring an ISO standard. I know... The ISO was corrupted, but look into why and how and the truth of it warns of Microsoft's corruption and all to much power.
The sooner people realize and take action to gain control of the ownership of their documents the sooner the world can watch the Microsoft grip on the world settle down to were it needs to be... at the bottom of the sea.
If you *need* to spend lots of dollars to feel confident in your office productive efforts, Money spent on the Sun / Oracle version of OpenOffice is a wiser choice. Its money well spent.
As far as functionality is concerned, the Microsoft options, as polished as they are, is the sweet poison apple that lures their victims to the lock in fate.
If you have never tried the newer Open Office products... you could be in for quite an eye opener with just how functional it really is.
The help aspects of Open Office work fairly well, so clippy (poor little thing) does not have a home there either. ( didn't Albert fussy head punch clippy in the nose once, I can't remember. )
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