I am responding to this post [link] on mainframe.gr. Vangelis Bibakis writes about how the past year was a lost one for Linux and brings up a couple of points. Go on and read them, but be warned: There aren’t really any valid arguments in there. After all, it is written by someone who admittedly uses a ‘W.A.M.P. (Windows Apache Mysql PHP)’ machine to code PHP [link].
The zealots issue (He writes about how Linux zealots install Linux on unsuspecting users’ PCs only for theM to find out later that there is no Photoshop on Linux and they can’t play their Windows games.)
I consider myself a Linux envangelist (I don’t like the term zealot). I have installed Linux for a number of people. I told them before that it is a new OS and that some things won’t work the way they do on Windows. And honestly: Does ‘Joe User’ (as Vangelis calls the average user) REALLY USE Photoshop? And even if he does use it, what are the chances that he is just using it to crop a picture or change the saturation in one every once in a while. YOU DON’T NEED PHOTOSHOP FOR THAT! And since it is probably pirated anyway, I might be doing someone like that a favour.
Playing the current Windows games is the only (!) reason why a home user might still want to have windows. If you don’t tell people about that before installing Linux for them, you are being a plain asshole.
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I’ve been thinking for a while that, to get Linux adoption on the Desktop the critical mass, we need some end-user advertising. People are just used to be alerted to new products this way and I think it could also help build credibility (making it more mainstream and less of a net phenomenon).
Now Steven Harms made a really nice Ubuntu poster. [link] I’m just imagining this as a full page ad in a large news magazine….
Glückwunsch Herr Stoiber!
Nachdem die Dilettanten aus Ihrem Büro sich doch tatsächlich haben erwischen lassen, als sie Frau Pauli (nach alter Bayerischer Art mit dreckigen Geschichten aus dem “Privatleben”) mundtot machen wollten, haben Sie und Ihre Partei das ganze Land wochenlang mit belanglosen Scheindebatten genervt.
Nun haben Sie endlich dieses lächerliche Gezicke beendet; im wohl unwichtigsten Freistaat der Welt kann wieder Frieden einkehren und die Ureinwohner können weiter in Ruhe Weißwurst essen, lächerliche Musik machen und hören, Lederhosen tragen und sich der deutschen Sprache verweigern.
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I came across this really interesting paper by Peter Gutmann of the University of Auckland. He does a cost analysis of the ‘content protection’ implemented in Microsofts new gift to humanity. He starts off with some technical features and quite an interesting point about hardware currently being sold as HD-ready. It simply isn’t. Some of the decoding hardware just simply wasn’t available until recently. So these big-ass LCD-screens might technically be able to display HD-content, you just won’t get Vista to give it any. Continue Reading »
Nach dem Skandal um die Durchsuchung des Piratbyrån in Schweden [wiki] wurde auch hier in Deutschland mit relativ kurzer Verzögerung eine Piratenpartei [link] gegründet. Mittlerweile ist sie eine Partei (Kurzbezeichnung PIRATEN) mit Bundesverband und einigen Landesverbänden und hat eine recht aktive Community.
Was mich wirklich beeindruckt hat, ist das Parteiprogramm [link]. Auf nur neun Seiten werden wirklich wichtige und oft unterschätzte Probleme der Wissensgesellschaft angesprochen. Besonders lesenswert ist folgender Absatz über Kopierschutz etc.:
Systeme, welche auf einer technischen Ebene die Vervielfältigung von Werken be- oder verhindern (”Kopierschutz”, “DRM”, usw.), verknappen künstlich deren Verfügbarkeit, um aus einem freien Gut ein wirtschaftliches zu machen. Die Schaffung von künstlichem Mangel aus rein wirtschaftlichen Interessen erscheint uns unmoralisch, daher lehnen wir diese Verfahren ab.
Darüber hinaus behindern sie auf vielfältige Art und Weise die berechtigte Nutzung von Werken, erschaffen eine vollkommen inakzeptable Kontrollierbarkeit und oft auch Überwachbarkeit der Nutzer und gefährden die Nutzung von Werken durch kommende Generationen, denen der Zugang zu den heutigen Abspielsystemen fehlen könnte.
Zusätzlich stehen die gesamtwirtschaftlichen Kosten für die Etablierung einer lückenlosen und dauerhaft sicheren Kopierschutzinfrastruktur im Vergleich zu ihrem gesamtwirtschaftlichen Nutzen in einem extremen Missverhältnis. Die indirekten Folgekosten durch erschwerte Interoperabilität bei Abspielsystemen und Software erhöhen diese Kosten weiter.
Quelle: Parteiprogramm der Piratenpartei Deutschland S. 3
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InnoTek yesterday decided to release [link] their virtualization software [wiki] VirtualBox as Open Source. It looks very promising and if it manages to become a successful open source project it might well overtake VMWare. I installed the Ubuntu Edgy package, and played around with it. Ran into a permission problem but the guys in their IRC-Channel were very helpful and it was solved quickly.
Quick HOWTO for installing it on Ubuntu Edgy
1. Download and install the deb-Package for Edgy Eft from the project page. [link]
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I don’t quite remember where I came across this but it is priceless. I present to you:
The official website of the Democratic People’s Republic Of North Korea
http://www.kcckp.net/en/
Make sure you check out the slideshows of Kim Jong Il being ridiculous. In this picture he demonstrates that he is cool enough to wear his stylish sunglasses even when inside inspecting some unit of his minions. An activity by the way that he seems to spend most of his time pursuing.
One of the things I really like about using Linux is the wealth of cool and surprising software. I’ll start off with Inkscape [Link].
Inkscape is a vector illustration software for Linux, MacOSX and Windows. Unlike with pixel-based image editors (like Photoshop), vector graphics can be scaled without losing quality. I had tried using Adobe Illustrator about two years ago but struggled with the wealth of options and functions. Literature on the software was also way above my needs in terms of complexity. I just wanted to draw something.
Inkscape however brought me back to vector graphics. The user interface is very clear and simple and the tutorials on the project page [Link] got me started within 10 minutes.
If you are using Ubuntu Edgy, there is a reasonably fresh version in the repositories which you can install using the ‘Add/Remove Applications’ dialog.
NewElitism is my first blog. I’ll try hard not to make it suck. So, first of all, what the **** is new elitism? New elitism is part of how is see society. Basically I think that the elite (in terms of intellect, knowledge, ability, wealth or earning power) is responsible for the wellbeing of society as a whole. The described elite is in a position to take responsibility and has the leverage to induce change, development and advancement in a much more effective way than others within society.
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