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Comment Morality (Score 1) 666

You can try to tackle this from a financial, support, or business perspective, but that's not the direction I'd go...

Red Hat funds a large chunk of the GNU/Linux development which you are benefiting from. They make a good product for a reasonable price (enterprise wise), and their competition is good for the software ecosystem. I want to see more companies follow their business model and promote Free Software. Given all that, personally, I think there is some, however small, level of moral obligation to support them if you have the resources. It's just the right thing to do - I think you feel it, and I know I feel it.

Tell your boss that you want to work for a moral company, and that includes things like not exploiting employees, recycling and green initiatives, and things like buying at least one copy of Red Hat Enterprise Linux if that's what you are using on your servers.

When he calls you a "linux hippy", just be like "yeah I'm a hippy, just like all the other hippies that got together, did what most people scoffed at, and created this software from scratch, for free, which you now want to run your whole enterprise on".

Comment Re:I want my old desktop back! (Score 1) 835

This post was a drastically condensed version of my full review from http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=263609 The first problem is that I don't like requiring people remember keyboard shortcuts in order to have a functional desktop. I like my mouse, it's already in my hand, and I don't want to be required to reach for the keyboard, and that's my right to have such a preference, thanks. Second, your solution adds an extra motion before I can even see my app list, then the same number of subsequent motions and clicks to switch. With Gnome 2, I can be reading the list of apps on the taskbar looking for the one I want, all while my mouse is en-route to that area of the desktop, so by the time I get down there, my eyes have zero'd in on exactly where I need to click. With your suggestion, I still have to mouse left and wait for the popout before my brain can even begin processing where I need to click. So, not only are we adding more mouse motions, but were are increasing the time my brain requires between those motions to perform the required actions. This is does NOT constitute an *improvement* to me.

Comment I want my old desktop back! (Score 1) 835

  • - Intertwining running apps with their launchers may be OK for newbs, but it sucks hard for the rest of us.
  • - Basic functions like switching apps or workspaces take twice as many motions and twice as many clicks as before.
  • - I have 5 desktops each with a specific purpose, with Dynamic Workspaces all my apps/desktops get shifted around into a messy pile.
  • - I used my taskbar as an reorderable ordered list of things needing my attention, with Activities Overview I can't.
  • - If I'm browsing and want to hide a downloaded PDF window until a little later, I can't without minimize.
  • - How is having a big pile of icons on one screen better than an organized menu? Oh wait, it's NOT!

Comment Gnome 3 Shell (Score 5, Insightful) 171

After half an hour with the Gnome 3 Shell I *really* want my old desktop back :(

My initial impression is that all fundamental tasks, like launching apps, switching apps, switching desktops, etc, all take far more motions and/or clicks to accomplish than before. It appears as though all my app launchers have been pulled from their organized menus and dumped in a big messy pile I have to search through. And it doesn't look like I can customize the layout like I could before.

Maybe it will grow on me, maybe I will learn and adapt (I'm trying to give the Gnome dev's the benefit of the doubt here), but as it stands after my initial half an hour, I *hate* it, and I don't think I'm going to be nearly alone?

Comment DLC? (Score 1) 252

What kind of DLC is available for this game? Can I get an Insurgent Pack? How about Dudes with RPG's in Pickup Trucks? Rebel Strongholds Hidden Amongst Innocent Civilians?

Comment Re:ergh (Score 1) 174

10" minimum - to comfortably read a page of text in landscape without zooming. I bought an iPad to tide me over until I can get a decent Android tablet (for reading websites from the sofa), and from my experience I wouldn't go smaller or lower resolution than that - I already have to squint on a lot of sites. If they can make a 4" screen for the Samsung Galaxy at 800x480, I don't think 1920x1080 on a 10" or 11" tablet is that unreasonable (I'm willing to pay accordingly).

Comment Background (Score 5, Informative) 136

My understanding is this...

Long before Java was GPL'd through OpenJDK, Sun was trying to claim that it was an open standard, and published specifications for the JVM, etc - kinda how Microsoft does with .NET. The dirty secret was that they also held patents on the technology, so they could still sue you for implementing their spec. If you want access to the patent grant - you can have that too, for free even, provided your implementation of Java passes the compatibility kit (TCK) tests (which disallows sub-setting). Those tests are the problem though - they are decidedly NOT open source, and you can only get access to them if you follow Sun's rules, like not building a mobile device and a bunch of crap like that. Apache (with help from IBM) has implemented those "open" specs via the Harmony project, but all the TCK rules make them mad.

Separate from all that, Sun then went and GPL'd the whole thing as OpenJDK. You can do anything with OpenJDK that you can do with any other GPL code - an important thing to remember in all this. Rumor has it, the GPLv2 license may even grant you some implicit protection against any patents Sun has on the technology - at the very least they would have a hard time suing you for building something based on OpenJDK as long as you adhere to the GPL

Unfortunately, Android isn't based on OpenJDK, it's based on Harmony, so it doesn't have any protection from Sun/Oracle's patents on Java (which also may apply to many virtual machines for other languages), so they are getting sued.

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