Windependence Day 272
An unknown reader points us to the Windependence Day contest sponsored by DesktopLinux. Cute idea, and I'm sure some people have exciting stories of battling the talking paperclip...
Beware the new TTY code!
It looks like you're trying to work (Score:1)
Stupid paperclip.
winderws (Score:1)
wnidows depends on me
Re:winderws (Score:2)
- Jester
July 14th: The Storming of Redmond (Score:4, Funny)
Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond (Score:2, Funny)
Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond (Score:2, Funny)
Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond (Score:2)
Does this mean there'll be free beer?
And our motto will be... (Score:2)
...l1b3rty, 3qual1ty, and frat3rn1ty!
Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond (Score:2)
You mispelled "Sadly".
Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond (Score:2)
From now on, I sure I hope I do too.
Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond (Score:2)
Any chance of it being a portable railgun that would fling CDs, or is the aluminum layer in your average CD not sufficient for that idea to work? If it could work, you could get some pretty decent speed out of the business end of it...
Of course, you'd probably need a backpack power supply to drive the thing. You could go around flinging AOHell CDs at people with a contraption that looks like something out of Ghostbusters [imdb.com]...
Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond (Score:2)
too flat and smooth.
Uhh.... (Score:2, Troll)
-Sean
Re:Uhh.... (Score:1, Funny)
"...crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke!"
Re:Uhh.... (Score:3, Funny)
About a year ago, doing a freelance job, I had to work a lot with Frontpage2000. Not too bad, since I was able to use Dreamweaver at home, but I also had to use Word a lot when I was in the office. It was mostly for conversions of data to be put into HTML. Since I was working on a machine that someone else used, and they were the primary user, I opted not to really change anything around. Anyway, one day when working with Word, the paperprick bastard kept popping up. I got so mad (mostly from being hungover) I took the box of paperclips at the desk and proceeded and to simply bend probably around 20-25 until they broke. Man, that was great. Not only did I kill the minions of the paperclip army, I killed enough time to the point that I chilled out and got back to work. Anyone else have a similiar pathetic story?
(yeah, yeah, I eventually turned the helper off, but whatever.)
Re:Uhh.... (Score:2)
Misnomer (Score:5, Interesting)
More systems are leaving traditional Unix for Linux than are leaving Windows for Linux.
Re:Misnomer (Score:1)
Re:Misnomer (Score:1)
For all the beauty of Apple cases, I don't think the cpu itself looks all that much better.
Re:Misnomer (Score:1)
Re:Misnomer (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Misnomer (Score:2)
Are you thinking of ULTRIX? As far as I can tell, it was pretty much phased out about the time that the Alpha processor launched. It was replaced by OSF/1, aka Digital UNIX, aka Tru64, which itself has now been retired in favor of HP/UX.
Re:Misnomer (Score:2)
It happened shortly after the VAX was introduced in 1977, when DARPA contracted with the Computer Sciences Research Group to port their version of UNIX from the PDP-11.
Re:Misnomer (Score:2)
Also, I nearly forgot about ULTRIX, which was a DEC product introduced somewhat later. It was a heavily VMS influenced version of UNIX for VAX, but I don't know if it has any relationship with the forementioned UNIX port.
Re:Misnomer (Score:2)
Yea. I've heard that theory too. Though I haven't seen any good data on it - got a reference?
One concept to consider is a loss for Solaris or AIX to Linux is still a loss for Microsoft.
I used to administer a lab of Unix (Solaris, HP/UX) workstations used for engineering applications. The apps were often also available for the Windows NT environment. Thus, Management was constantly being courted by vendors who offered Windows NT engineering workstation solutions - the draw was the cheaper, commodity hardware. But the engineers largely preferred the Unix workstations after experiencing WinNT during training seminars. None the less, the promise of cheaper hardware was always tempting.
These applications are now largely available for Linux. Thus Linux competes with Windows for the market of those who are seeking a way to run these applications on commodity hardware. When a shop migrates away from, say, Solaris it may be a loss for Solaris. But when the shift is to Linux, it is likely to be at the expense of a move to Windows.
Re:Misnomer (Score:2)
But it's true.... and more sad to admit they had it comming.
Ma Bell liccensed source code. No binarys no support just source.
Unix admin came to expect source code.
But with the Ma Bell break up and shrink wrap liccenses Unix drifted farther and farther away from that philosophy.
GNU/Linux fills the void left by this...
Sun offers Solarus source code for a hefty liccens fee I believe.
comes the revolution. (Score:1, Redundant)
or public burnings of Bill Gates in Effigy or something.
Should get his attention.
Obligatory, obscure Simpsons' quote (Score:2)
(from the episode where Homer gets smart via crayon removal)
independance day??? (Score:1)
or is that a little too insensitive these days??
Switchers? (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe Apple would team up with the Linux community on this one if the event was a little more inclusive. On the other hand, I think OS X and Linux are serious competitors, at least in the PPC world. I know my interest in Linux on PPC died when I saw the terminal in OS X and XDarwin...
wINDEPENDENCE, i.e Freedom (Score:3, Insightful)
First, you need to rephrase your question.
As stated, no, you don't have to use GNU/Linux, but you do have to use a Free Operating System (Free as in Freedom). This rules out Apple, Sun, etc. Replacing one set of masters with another set of masters doesn't by you an ounce of freedom or independence, which is what "Windependence" is all about.
So, if you had phrased your question "...do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Free Software" then the answere would be, if you wish to be free and independent, then yes, you have to use free software. If you do not care that a corporate vendor has veto power over your ability to use your PC, then Apple, Microsoft, or any number of other proprietary vendors will likely serve your purposes just fine.
Ok, maybe not Microsoft based on their track record for the last 10 years vis-a-vis reliability, security, and forced obsolescence...but don't kid yourself: Sun and Apple are just failed Microsoft wannabe's, and if you switch to their product you may find, while you are breathing a sigh of relief to be free of Microsoft's stranglehold, that you have in fact only replaced one set of masters with another and are now firmly entrenched in Apple, or Sun's, stranglehold. It only becomes a question of time then, before you are looking for escape once more.
It Isn't Really All That Hard (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:It Isn't Really All That Hard (Score:2)
I'm a Debian maintainer and I wrote pppconfig to make it easy for users to configure ppp. What have you contributed?
How about.... (Score:4, Insightful)
For me to run Linux on my main PC at work, I need specific things: A Groupwise client, a Novell client, a pcAnywhere type thing to check on remote systems which cannot be replaced by Linux because of the apps that must run on them... ? These things would go a lot further than a doorprize, though free stuff is always good.
Re:How about.... (Score:2)
Re:How about.... (Score:1)
Re:How about.... (Score:2)
Re:How about.... (Score:3, Informative)
You mean like this [novell.com], this [darkrock.co.uk] (or this [novell.com]), and this [tightvnc.com]?
Re:How about.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The only way to "kick the habit" and to bring any real competition back to the SW industry is to only use software that interchanges data in standard formats.
In the mean time, many dedicated OSS developers are fighting the losing fight of trying to create reverse-engineered software for many of the more popular proprietary formats and protocols. God bless 'em.
-Peter
Sighh... (Score:2)
At home, however... Linux box here I come! (Just moved; computers et al in pieces!)
?!
Re:How about.... (Score:2)
Can't help with GroupWise, but back when I was playing with NetWare 5, I had Linux accessing shares on a NetWare server. It's been a while, but IIRC you need IPX and NCP support compiled into the kernel (NCP over TCP wasn't supported...maybe it is now). There might've been some additional software involved, but I can't remember offhand. (I set up a server on some spare hardware, got my CNS, and toasted my setup when some hardware went screwy...haven't bothered putting it back on a machine since Linux will do for me what NetWare does, and then some.)
Re:How about.... (Score:2)
Re:How about.... (Score:2)
One question though... (Score:5, Insightful)
Does that make Windependence Day WD-40?
Truly outrageous (Score:1, Troll)
Independence day allows us to look back on the sacrifices [alliance4lifemin.org] our forefathers made to keep America free. I don't appreciate seeing it trivialized to further some partisan hippy cause. "Free software" types are clearly, in many cases, not on the side of Freedom (except when it comes to smoking pot). We need only look at their response to the Microsoft "anti-trust" case, or the victim-control [216.239.51.100] mentality they exhibit so often on sites like this one. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I'm even less of a fan of government intrusion. I recommend everybody read Atlas Shrugged [amazon.com] to see how Gates should have handled things, if he wasn't such a pansy.
Bottomline: don't trivialize independence day.
Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom. Those are your birthrights, secured with the blood of our ancestors. Don't let them down by falling for this hippy crap instead.
Re:Truly outrageous...sorta (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/declare.htm
However, I whole-heartedly agree with your basic premise, in that this is distasteful of them, and Atlas Shrugged is a good read. Not likely to happen, ever, but an interesting perspective.
Parent post modded down out of idiocy... (Score:2)
The reason I disagree is that monopolistic companies and organizations can take away our rights the same as any invader. Only we have a harder time fighting them. The MPAA/RIAA and their purchase of Senator Fritz come to mind. If the SSSCA had passed, we'd have lost some rights critical to creative work.
I respectfully disagree with you, but modding you down as Troll was awful. There are moderators on Slashdot that could stand to learn the difference between stating an opinion and trying to rile people up.
Parent was a troll (Score:2)
The poster is making an important point, but the point is lost amid the insults. People will respond not to the ideas but the language. For that reason, it is a troll.
I have re-written the parent, removing all insults, thus making a more effective post:
Independence day allows us to look back on the sacrifices our forefathers made to keep America free. I don't appreciate seeing it trivialized.
Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom. Those are your birthrights, secured with the blood of our ancestors. Don't let them down!
Re:Parent post modded down out of idiocy... (Score:2)
On to the topic, I think you're both right, in that the line between gov't and business has become so blurred that it's often impossible to tell just who is controlling what. Yet all too often, the opposing forces (frex, opensource advocates) are indeed more like hippies than patriots. (Of course, most folk here weren't yet born during the hippie era, and have no idea what the parent post is talking about.)
But the situation at present is actually FAR beyond the abuses that led to the American War for Independence (it was called the Revolutionary War on the *other* side of the ditch). Frex, did you know that the horribly extortionate Tea Tax, which led to the "Boston Tea Party", was a whopping ONE PERCENT?!!
Yet now we put up with half our income being stripped by taxes, another chunk being pried out of our wallet by business interests like M$ and the RIAA, and effectively no representation working against these primary and secondary levies.
Yeah, this rambles a bit, so flame me.
Re:Parent post modded down out of idiocy... (Score:2)
Re:Truly outrageous (Score:3, Insightful)
The pharmaceutical industry would like fewer regulations so it could lower its costs, but the regulations set quality requirements for your safety. You can walk into any drug store and the generic drugs are just as high quality as the name brands. Without the regulations, you'd be betting your health on the abilities of a corporation's marketing team.
The airline industry would like fewer regulations so it could lower the cost of maintaining and flying planes, but the regulations require certain maintenance procedures for your safety. The pilots and mechanics of the airline may not want to cut corners, but executives are forever pushing for that extra dollar of profit. Without the regulations, planes would be falling out of the sky because some exec who knows nothing about aviation pushed too far.
Peter Pan may get away without regulations in Never Land, but in the real world regulations serve a purpose.
Bottom line: If you're going to criticize regulations that serve specific interests (as opposed to the whole of society), fine, but don't trivialize regulations.
Re:Truly outrageous (Score:2)
Well...when you go to the store to buy an iron or a hair dryer, is it the government that protects you? No...but the Underwriters Laboratories approval tag is almost certainly on the appliance you buy. UL is not a governmental body.
Re:Truly outrageous (Score:2)
cuz then i'd stop drinking this horrible tea and get my gun..
microsoft is coming! microsoft is coming!
don't you love how history repeats itself?
Lycoris (Score:3, Insightful)
here [lycoris.org]
here [lycoris.org]
and here [lycoris.org]
Perhaps MS can sue them for 'theft of look and feel.'
Re:Lycoris (Score:2)
Re:Lycoris (Score:2)
Re:Win on Lin... (Score:2)
I'm running KDE right now, and I'll be damned! It looks just like...like...KDE!
Definition? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Definition? (Score:3, Funny)
What? the Office Assistant isn't straight?
Re:Definition? (Score:2)
For those who are fighting a battle against the office clippy, you can easily neuter it by renaming the directory \program files\microsoft office\office\actors. It's like the clippy is not installed. This information should be most useful to people on corporate machines where they cannot get a hold of the Office CD to run setup.exe to uninstall it.
Re:Definition? (Score:2)
Why July 4? (Score:2, Insightful)
July 14th (France)
May 1st (Russia)
October 1st (China)
July 1st (Hong Kong)
June 12th (Phillippines)
March 1st (South Korea)
April 30th (Vietnam)
Why is 4th July so special?
Re:Why July 4? (Score:2, Funny)
July 4th is the USian independence day. If we don't let them have their way, expect to see your country join the "axis of evil" and get bombed in a couple weeks.
Re:Why July 4? (Score:3, Funny)
Of course we declared war on Germany (Score:2)
May 17! (Score:2)
Scandinavian independence day. If it weren't for Scandinavians, we wouldn't even be thinking about this.
Re:Why July 4? (Score:2)
Ahh
What next? Claims that the US is the oldest democracy, when it's a republic? Or that it is the biggest "democracy", even though such countries as India and Malaysia are far bigger?
*sigh*
"it's early history is truely significant"
So? The same can be said of Denmark. Up until the late 1500s, early 1600s, Denmark was one the foremost countries in Europe with regards to naval power and supremacy. Now it's just a puny little country with some of the highest taxes in the world. In comparison, the US was once regarded as a guardian of democracy and freedom, but that was a loong time ago - and it's not getting better, I'm sad to say.
So to get back to the point - why choose July 4th as "independence day"? I have no idea - why not pick something more symbolic; what day was MSFT introduced on the stockmarket? What day was Microsoft founded? What day was Windows introduced? What day did Linus start working on Linux?
Tying it to a national independence day (no matter what nation) will only deter the participation of nationalists across the world "because my country is MUCH better than the other countries - I know because I was born in THIS country and that makes it better than the piece of land 10 yards away!!!".
Of course if what you want is to promote the use of Windows, be sure to place Windependence Day on such a day
Oh wait - too late.
And placing Tux in an Uncle Sam hat? Nich touch. Who arranged this? Microsofts PR-department?
ironic? (Score:2, Troll)
Re:ironic? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ironic? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ironic? (Score:2)
Re:ironic? (Score:2)
Especially those with licences that require them to pay Microsoft for every PC they own regardless of whether it has Windows on it.
Ever tried to return your OEM MS Windows for the refund promised by the EULA?
Yes there are alternatives. (I use one of them), but to most people, especially businesses, the Microsoft tax (and the Autodesk tax, for that matter) is a fact of doing business.
Re:ironic? (Score:2)
Re:ironic? (Score:2)
Anyways, has there even been a single actual audit? I would think
Re:ironic? (Score:2)
Yes, there have been plenty of audits. None that have effected me, but I've read about them...
Re:ironic? (Score:2)
Re:ironic? (Score:2)
Now contrast this with the average Microsoft user and Microsoft. Said user wants to be independent of Microsoft products. Microsoft doesn't want them to be. User erases Microsoft software and installs FreeBSD (or Linux for you folks in Rio Linda). Microsoft responds by
If you can't understand the difference between Microsoft under King Bill and England under King George, you need to get out into the sun a bit more often.
exciting stories? (Score:3, Funny)
LMAO.
'It was a dark and stormy night. My nervous grip on my trusty Xconfigurator tightened as I heard the 'BOOIIING!' from the distance. Only one thing in this world made that sound. And that thing was Bob...'
Re:exciting stories? (Score:2)
I started typing a swashbuckling tale about my battles on my work machine (where I'm not allowed to install anything) against the clippy, but then I remembered that I'm at work.
On the next Celebrity Boxing... (Score:3, Funny)
I can see the filk now... (Score:3, Funny)
(Apologies to Martina McBride.)
Instead of 4th of July... (Score:2)
i liked this (Score:2)
Windependence Day, my story. (Score:5, Informative)
I recently switched. Just my laptop, for now...
My company volunteered for a BSA audit some months ago.
We were short some licenses; we rectified the situation before sending our report back to the BSA, indicating while we had been short some licenses, we were currently in compliance...
This overage involved approximately 10% of our client machines...
We relaxed, thinking we'd done good ethically and morally, by owing up to our discretion and paying for it...
Then we were sued...
Not for the the 10% of our clients that were out of license...
For a sum equal to the entire -retail- value of all BSA represented software at our organization...
Paid for yesterday, or three years ago, or five, or more...
Essentially, they want us to pay for every piece of BSA software (we currently use) twice...
My Windependence day happened a month ago...
Just my laptop...
25 machines on our network use mission critical MS-only systems...
That's less that 3%...
Last month MS lost 1 customer...
Just my laptop...
The other 900+ systems on our network...
Well...
They're good for now...
Re:Windependence Day, my story. (Score:3, Insightful)
Except that a cop is a duly-sworn officer of the law, and a BSA auditor is not. (No matter what your opinions on cops are, you have to at least admit that!) Besides, If you get pulled over, and you admit to the cop that you were speeding (which is much more like what the Poster said his company did), the cop just writes you a ticket and sends you on your way; he doesn't arrest you for the robbery that just took place down the road!
Of course, none of this would even be necessary if the BSA would leave the "investigations" and "law enforcement" to the people who actually have the legal authority to do so.
The BSA methods. (Score:2, Informative)
If you ignore or upset them, then the BSA will get help from local authorities. I believe they use the federal marshalls. The Marshalls will knock down your door and tell everyone to take their hands off their keyboards to prevent any deletion of evidence. So far not much gives the BSA the right to do this, but a flimsy EULA and some badly interpreted copyright laws.
No, it's not right or fair, but it is now precedented, so you will need to check your facts before you start using software from BSA members. There are few ways to win against the BSA system because they only get paid if you are charged/fined/extorted money.
Just remember that that fu*k'n paperclip is a member of the mob.
Troll season. (Score:2)
Sure my comment's troll flame-bait, but no more than that story is.
Re:Troll season. (Score:2)
We could call it Lindependence Day.
*rotfl* these crappy-ass puns just kill me.
Re: Battling the Paperclip! (Score:3, Funny)
Wow! Look at all the features... (Score:2)
At least give us a chance to switch (Score:2)
The already bundled software with the Linux distribution works fine but its when I want to install new software that the problems occur (ie. missing libraries, permissions, drivers, graphics, etc.)
Re:At least give us a chance to switch (Score:3, Insightful)
What gets me with Windows is that when you have something that you know works but that you have to keep reinstalling the software or to keep thing simple save your stuff on another system and reinstall. You do not know what is being installed and you have to take great care to insure that the system is running well. If you ever had a test system where you constantly install...test...deinstall you would have a hard time keeping this system running properly without problems for a year.
Now on linux you have the dependencies. It may require a couple of minutes more to install but in the end you never have to reinstall the OS to keep the stability. This also applies to FreeBSD and such.
Re:At least give us a chance to switch (Score:2)
Yes I considered Macs but the problem is that they're pretty expensive. If I buy a Mac, it'll be an iBook. There laptops are decently priced for once.
Re:At least give us a chance to switch (Score:2)
Give us simplicity and people will begin using Linux en masse.
Re:At least give us a chance to switch (Score:2)
Besides, from all the apps I've downloaded from freshmeat, very few had rpm packages.
And why exactly didn't your company switch to Linux on the desktop?
We're already inside(TM) (Score:2)
http://www.salmondays.tv/downloads/paper_clip.m
Windependance != Freedom, it seems (Score:4, Insightful)
It brings to mind what I believe is a translated polish proverb:
A change of leaders is the joy of fools.
To exchange one set of proprietary terms & conditions for another, even if the new ones are a lot less aggravating, when one could instead have grasped Freedom in perpetuity, is a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Well said! (Score:2)
I think it's a shame that most of the prizes are partly or completely non-free software.
That was so well said that I'll give you 10 free Apache licenses and another 10 free OpenOffice licenses!
Re:Windependance != Freedom, it seems (Score:3, Interesting)
A change of leaders is the joy of fools.
Yeah, we have a proverb like that in English too:
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
I chuckled when I heard the bad guy saying this in "The Sum Of All Fears" but I didn't know just how deeply Pete Townshend's line had worked itself into the linguistic landscape until I did this search. [google.com]
free your ass from Windows-alike interfaces (Score:2)