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Comment Re:time to port gnome! (Score 1) 828

by JimDaGeek (#26459447) Attached to: Qt Becomes LGPL

Linux works BECAUSE of the fracturing, not in spite of it.

I don't know what numbers you are looking at, but Linux is not "working" at least in the sense of user base. It has very low usage on the desktop. Very low.

than pay through the nose for OS X + hardware

Ok troll, nice try. Where did I say "my beloved OS X"? No where. Pay through the nose? Not quite. I did a price compare before I switched. Very competitive when you go feature for feature.

then all the little nickel and dime utilities you need for OS X

Nice try again troll. I have been using OS X for more than 2 years now and have never needed nor bought any of the apps listed on your link. I guess you are suggesting that there are not 10's of thousands of shareware apps out there for MS Windows?

Go back under your bridge.

Comment Re:Ars Technica report (Score 1) 828

by JimDaGeek (#26450733) Attached to: Qt Becomes LGPL
The LGPL only comes into play if you make changes to the QT code base. So, if you do a closed source app and add a feature to the QT code itself, then you will have to release the QT code change(s), however NOT your applications code.

Comment Re:time to port gnome! (Score 5, Insightful) 828

by JimDaGeek (#26450545) Attached to: Qt Becomes LGPL

Firstly, without competition, things tend to languish.

Competition is great, however GNU/Linux should not be competing against itself. There is too much fragmentation in Linux-land, 10 apps that all try to do the same thing, but each one does certain aspects better, yet none get it all right. Instead consolidate all that effort to 2 or 3 apps.

Linux gets to compete against Windows and OS X. Are you old enough to remember the Unix-wars? All the big Unix versions were all doing things their own way whilw MS and Apple were working on more consistent offerings. We all know what happened to the major Unix players.

Sadly, Linux desktop seems to be repeating the past. Constantly reinventing the wheel with tons of yet-another-app-X syndrome.

I have been using Linux since early Red Hat days. Then I used Slack, built my own Linux based on LFS for about 2 years. Then on to Gentoo, then to Fedora then finally Ubuntu.

Ubuntu made things a lot better IMO, however it still suffers with a felling of many apps tacked together instead of a more cohesive product. This was the main reason I switched to OS X 2 years ago and have been happy with that choice.

I still find myself missing Linux and would love to see a more unified final product. I don't want to have to be bothered with looking for a Gnome/GTK+ based app for Ubuntu so it works/integrates best.

There have been too many times I where I couldn't find a good Gnome/GTK+ based app but found it with a KDE based app. However, that one app pulls in a lot of KDE based bloat that I don't want/need. So I would try to switch to KDE from Gnome for a while, but found the same issue where I would have to pull in/use a Gnome/GTK+ based app.

Lather, rinse, repeat.
Linux Business

Submission + - AMD to open ATI specs (0xdeadbeef.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AMD has announced they are releasing the specs for all new radeon chipsets, and will be working with the open source community to develop a fully functional 2d and 3d graphics driver. AMD appears to be following in Intel's footsteps with upcoming releases. If AMD is successfull NVidia will have real competition in the GNU/Linux gaming arena. While past support by ATI was unsatisfactory the new AMD buyout appears to be having some effect.
United States

Air Force Mistakenly Transports Live Nukes Across America 898

Posted by samzenpus from the you-can't-fight-in-here-this-is-the-war-room dept.
kernel panic attack writes "Surely the late Stanley Kubrick is somewhere smiling at this one. Forbes.com has a story about a B-52 Bomber that mistakenly flew 6-nuclear tipped cruise missles across several states last week. The 3-hour flight took the plane from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30. The incident was so serious that President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were quickly informed and Gates has asked for daily briefings on the Air Force probe, said Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell."
Security

The DRM Scorecard 543

Posted by samzenpus from the guess-who's-ahead dept.
An anonymous reader writes "InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe put together a scorecard which makes the obvious but interesting point that, when you list every major DRM technology implemented to "protect" music and video, they've all been cracked. This includes Apple's FairPlay, Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, the old-style Content Scrambling System (CSS) used on early DVDs and the new AACS for high-definition DVDs. And of course there was the Sony Rootkit disaster of 2005. Can anyone think of a DRM technology which hasn't been cracked, and of course this begs the obvious question: Why doesn't the industry just give up and go DRM-free?"
Networking

Ohio Establishing State Wide Broadband Network 105

Posted by samzenpus from the fast-internet-for-the-people dept.
bohn002 writes "In order to coordinate and expand access to the state's broadband data network, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has signed an executive order establishing the Ohio Broadband Council and the Broadband Ohio Network. The order directs the Ohio Broadband Council to coordinate efforts to extend access to the Broadband Ohio Network to every county in Ohio. The order allows public and private entities to tap into the Broadband Ohio Network — all with a goal of expanding access to high-speed internet service in parts of the state that presently don't have such service."
Businesses

Cisco to Kill Linksys Brand Name 262

Posted by CowboyNeal from the alas-we-hardly-knew-ye dept.
Mav sent in this article that opens, "In a roundtable with the European press, John Chambers confirmed the "end of life" of the Linksys name, being replaced by the new and redesigned Cisco branding." He explains, "It will all come over time into a Cisco brand. The reason we kept Linksys' brand because it was better known in the US than even Cisco was for the consumer. As you go globally there's very little advantage in that."

BitTorrent Comes to Cell Phones 101

Posted by CowboyNeal from the tracker-still-down-anyway dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Finally, a BitTorrent interface for the mobile phone. Dubbed uTorrent mUI, the web user interface allows the end user to control torrent downloads remotely. The interface still lacks the ability to add torrents, however bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone is a giant step forward."
Microsoft

Microsoft Launches OSS Site, Submits License For Approval 261

Posted by Zonk from the working-together-hand-in-hand dept.
prostoalex writes "Microsoft has launched a site dedicated to collaboration between Microsoft and open source community. The site helps developers, IT administrators, and IT buyers find out what Microsoft's product offerings are, and read articles about open source such as 'Open Source Provider Sees Sales Doubling After Moving Solutions to the Windows Platform.'" Relatedly, CNet has the news that the company has submitted its shared-sources license to the OSI for approval.
Games

Condemned 2 Trying to Avoid Manhunt 2's Fate 108

Posted by Zonk from the game-must-be-approved-by-state-comrade dept.
CVG is reporting that Monolith, makers of the upcoming Condemned 2, are working with the ESRB to avoid an AO rating. As we've discussed previously, an AO ban in the states is effectively a ban on retail sales. From the article: "When asked for examples of what we might now never see in a game again, we were told, 'An example of what we cut would be putting someone's head in a vice. That was too much, you know. There are also some decapitations we've lost. But this is more Sin City than it is real world and we want people to know that this is not a real world.'"
Software

Humans Can Still Out-Bluff Machines 279

Posted by Zonk from the for-now dept.
Pcol writes "The New York Times reports that in a poker game this week between man and machine, a program called Polaris fought a close match, but lost to two well-known professional poker players. Designing a poker playing algorithm is a different and more difficult challenge for software designers than chess and checkers because of uncertainties introduced by the hidden cards held by each player and difficult-to-quantify risk-taking behaviors such as bluffing. The game-tree approach doesn't work in poker because in many situations there is no one best move and a top-notch player adapts his play over time, exploiting his opponent's behavior. Polaris build a series of "bots" that have differing personalities or styles of play, ranging from aggressive to passive. Researchers monitored the performance of three bots and then moved them in and out of the lineup like football players."
Software

Dell Asking ATI For Better Linux Drivers 291

Posted by kdawson from the please-sir-can-i-have-a-little-more dept.
Open Source IT writes "According to a presentation at Ubuntu Live 2007, Dell is working on getting better ATI drivers for Linux for use in its Linux offerings. While it is not known whether the end product will end up as open source, with big businesses like Google and Dell now behind the push for better Linux graphics drivers, hopefully ATI will make the smart business decision and give customers what they want."
Communications

What's Keeping US Phones In the Stone Age? 925

Posted by kdawson from the too-much-for-not-much dept.
knapper_tech writes "After seeing the iPhone introduction, I was totally confused by how much excitement it generated in the US. It offered no features I could see beyond my Casio W41CA's capabilities. I had a lot of apprehension towards the idea of a virtual keypad and the bare screen looked like a scratch magnet. Looks aren't enough. Finally, the price is ridiculous. The device is an order of magnitude more expensive than my now year-old Keitai even with a two-year contract. After returning to the US from Japan, I've come to realize the horrible truth behind iPhone's buzz. Over the year I was gone, US phones haven't really done anything. Providers push a minuscule lineup of uninspiring designs and then charge unbelievable prices for even basic things like text messages. I was greeted at every kiosk by more tired clamshells built to last until obsolescence, and money can't buy a replacement for my W41CA." Read on as this reader proposes and dismissed a number of possible explanations for the difference in cell-phone markets between the US and Japan. He concludes with, "It seems to me more like competition is non-existent and US providers are ramming yesteryear's designs down our throats while charging us an arm and a leg! Someone please give me some insight."

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