Slashback: Tenacity, Freedomware, Lem

Slashback brings you more on Solaris, the not-quite-dead OS/2, and free software you can sneak onto your Windows-running computer. Also, Home Depot turns to the dark side, and Hughes winds down its two-way Internet-by-satellite service. Read on below for the details. Update: 12/18 00:30 GMT by T : The Home Depot item got chopped by accident; it's been restored below. Update: 12/18 00:38 GMT by T : Sigh. And -- my fault for misreading -- Hughes is shutting down their DSL business; satellite service continues at least for now.

Honest, I'm not dead. Again. silvaran writes "A clarification on CNet News indicates that IBM will not stop supporting or selling OS/2 as mentioned previously. Says IBM spokesman Steve Eisenstadt, 'As long as our customers want OS/2, we will support them... We don't have plans to withdraw OS/2.' The withdrawal notice lists several hundred components or software packages that will no longer be available, but OS/2 itself will still be offered."

Like Marshall MacLuhan in Annie Hall. tree writes "The Boston Globe has a really interesting interview with Stanislaw Lem, author of the 1961 novel "Solaris": he is a bit baffled about the latest movie adaptation. In any event, it's a great read for fans of Lem."

They win, GNU Win, we all win. Shwag writes "Last week I downloaded TheOpenCD after it was on Slashdot. I learned about all kinds of great free (as in speech) software. I then searched for more and found out about GNU Win which is a win32 free software cd but it has way more software! Yay! This is a really great way to show people the benefits of free software and get them ready for transitioning to linux."

A platform built from an Acorn. An anonymous reader writes "The (London) Guardian's Online section reports today on the new Ionix PC earlier Slashdotted for being the first desktop to run Intel's XScale processor. The Guardian concentrates on how the new machine may revive the fading fortunes of the once-pioneering Risc OS, but also makes mention of the fact it is ditching old proprietary Acorn subsystems."

Woe to the boonie dwellers, until enough balloons are in place. Avenger writes "Another DSL provider is getting out of the market. Hughes Electronics has announced that they will no longer be providing high-speed Internet services. Over 160,000 users will be affected. As it stands right now, they still will be providing connectivity via DirecPC."

But it seemed like such a great do-it-yourself idea! adagioforstrings writes "You may recall last year Home Depot announced they were deploying Linux at 90,000 point-of-sale terminals across the nation. Well, time went by and no more was heard about it...until now, when Home Depot announced they would be upgrading their POS systems with technology from NCR Corp., and 360 Commerce Inc. and ... Microsoft Corp."

Wait...

[damiam]

What happened to Home Depot and the Dark Side?

The Whole is the Sum of its parts

[snitty]

It seems that IBM is dancing around the issue here. They say that they will still support and sell OS/2, but they are not supporting large chunks of it.

It would be simmilar to microsoft saying that it will still sell windows, but if anyone has a problem with any of the components (IE, Control Pannels) they are out of luck.

It seems that IBM dosen't want to say that they aren't stopping, but they want to. They should bite the bullet and go one way, the other, or the GNU way.

What does this mean for LincSat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mentioned as an aside about DirecTV was this gem:

The company will continue to offer its Direcway service, which offers high-speed Internet access via satellite with over 160,000 subscribers, but it said it will not increase its subscriber base aggressively in an effort to avoid the costs associated with acquiring subscribers.

What does this mean for LincSat [lincsat.com]?. They got their service through Direcway. We had been thinking about LincSat for our business but aren't going to go with it if they're being shut down.

Freeware

[Thatmushroom]

I must confess, I believe the Gnuwin cd deserves a lot more accolades. I downloaded the Open-CD iso, but I realized that with the possible exception of OpenOffice, there really weren't any applications that the people I know might possibly interested in. The multiple compilers in one location would certainly create some interest, but the communication and games packages are the ones that make me want to give this CD to those who know very little about computing. Some will say this is good, some will say I'm inviting a wave of unclean, but if I can show my friends how easy it is to use free, open-source software, then they might avoid any purchases where they contribute to Microsoft, or any company that offers an inferior product to a free one. The fear of just trying something different kept me away from even considering Linux for a long time, and the knowledge and use of free programs like this removes a lot of the fear.

Sorry for rambling on like that.

Why I no longer frequent the Home Despot

[RollingThunder]

It used to be a no-brainer - Home Depot in Vancouver was open 24 hours, great selection, and a little bit closer to me than the nearest comparably sized Revy store.

Sure, a little bit of me didn't like shopping at a US firm when there was a Canadian firm, but at 2 AM, you don't have much choice, and for some reason I always seem to end up going and getting lumber and crap for things I'm working on at 2 AM.

Then one day, HD announced they were going stock only from 2 AM to 5 AM. Fine, I thought. No biggie. I'll just try to get there earlier.

Then it was midnight to six.

Then ten to six it was closed. Now it's the same hours as Revy.

Then they "expanded their aisles to make shopping better". Nice doublespeak for "we dropped twenty percent of our stock"!

Creature of habit that I am, I kept going there. I'm uncomfortably reminded of "how to boil a frog"... but one day, I wander into Revy on a quest for the holy rivet.

OK, not that holy. I just needed some damn copper rivets. HD had nothing. I go into Revy, and they have not just one or two but dozens of types of rivets. I realized then how bad I'd been getting it at HD. Never going back there again!

ATTENTION MODERATORS...

[Anonvmous Coward]

... Don't be stupid. Parent post recieved an overrated moderation for saying this:

"What happened to Home Depot and the Dark Side?"

Don't mod this guy Redundant or Off-topic. When the topic originally appeared it was missing that info. Don't burn his karma up just because he can't go back and update it now that the story is fixed.

Normally I wouldn't bother to post something like this, but I've been burned a couple of times recently over it. If you have karma to burn, mod up the funny posts or find people that really are trolling. Don't mod people down because an article was corrected after the fact. Its not like we can run back and edit our posts to coincide with the edit to the story.

"considering the switch..."

[renard]

You may recall last year Home Depot announced they were deploying Linux at 90,000 point-of-sale terminals across the nation. Well, time went by... until now, when Home Depot announced they would be upgrading their POS systems with technology from... Microsoft

Another case when corporate HQ's "We're considering transitioning to Linux..." turns out to be biz-speak for "Gimme a discount, Ballmer!"

We'll know Linux has won this battle when the shoe's on the other foot and HQ mulls over "transitioning to Windows" until, I dunno, some widget-manufacturer agrees to release open-source drivers that work on the latest RedHat release... or something.

-renard

Re:Something I noticed at home depot.

[smack_attack]

Now I know where to go when Windows XP SP2 comes out and won't install. :)

Thanks for the heads up.

TROLL? WTF?

[Maxwell'sSilverLART]

How, exactly, is this is a troll? My guess is that the moderator didn't get the joke. So, for the cosmically clueless, here it is:

The parent poster misspelled "rogue" as "rouge." This misspelling actually resulted in a different word, properly spelled. "Rouge" is French (and other languages, including English meanings) for "red." Therefore, when Alomex commented on "rouge linux" being the standard distro in Soviet Russia, he was actually being quite witty: Red Linux is standard distro in Soviet Russia.

Sheesh. Give some clown mod points, he turns off his brain.

Re:I'll bite, Timothy

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Windows NT was a totally new kernel, as well. It did happen to have an OS/2 1.x subsystem, but I understand that is no longer included as of XP.

Time for her to take a toke from the clue bong

[sterno]

Let's think about this for a moment. If you are deploying thousands of systems, you can set a standard and deploy a standard that is compliant with Linux. As for attached hardware, I guarantee you that any POS hardware shop would bend over backwards to make a massive sale to home depot. They are one of the 800 lb gorillas in retail so you'd think that they get a little flexibility from their vendors.

So now they get to pay licensing fees on all of those POS systems forever. What happens when Microsoft no longer supports the OS on your registers? Now you HAVE to upgrade, and outlay even more in support costs.

Good thinking... really...

In reality, I guarantee that this decision is the old, "nobody lost their job choosing microsoft", the more modern version of the same phrase that was applied to IBM originally. IF they went with Linux and it was a failure for whatever reason, the person who made the decision is SCREWED. IF they go with windows and it's a failure, they won't take the heat because they went with Microsoft.

Granted, if the Linux option succeeds they have the potential to look really good, but oh well...

Lem "Interview"

[Bodrius]

Someone has to nitpick... There is no "interview", it's just a nice short article on Stanislaw Lem, using the last movie as an excuse to call attention on an immensely underrated author.

The "interview" part consists of a single quote, taken from the public statement he published elsewhere about the criticisms to the North American version of Solaris.

The article is pretty good, though. I was unaware of some of the details of PKD's involvement in the SFWA debacle.

Re:Correction: Newest OS/2 was released in 2002

[reallocate]

As someone who used versions 2,3, and 4 of OS/2, I can say it sure would have been nice to see IBM put at least a little bit of energy into the OS. But, the fact is that OS/2 has never been as critical to IBM's success as Window's is to Microsoft. IBM is a much larger, much different kind of company than Mirosoft. OS/2 is just one of thousands of products, not by any means a core IBM product. It's easy to imagine an IBM without OS/2, but not a Microsoft without Windows.

Re:Something I noticed at home depot.

[gmhowell]

They could use some common sense like my local white box shop. See, they put the label INSIDE the computer case. Hmmm, what an idea.