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2009-09-25
, 23:53
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Posts: 3,319 |
Thanked: 5,610 times |
Joined on Aug 2008
@ Finland
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#171
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2009-09-25
, 23:59
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Posts: 3,397 |
Thanked: 1,212 times |
Joined on Jul 2008
@ Netherlands
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#172
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Also talking about hiring a programmer is great if you are a big business, but as an end-user its cheaper to buy a copy of Windows where it "just works".
Funny you should bring up PulseAudio too as ever since Mandriva switched to PulseAudio I cannot get sound to work properly. PulseAudio does not support digital passthru over SPDIF which highlights my point exactly of what for me is the problem with Linux. They happily remove functionality I have been using for years in favour of something new and better, which is not feature complete. Just like how mucked up KDE 4 is compared to KDE 3.
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2009-09-26
, 00:05
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Posts: 4,384 |
Thanked: 5,524 times |
Joined on Jul 2007
@ ˙ǝɹǝɥʍou
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#173
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2009-09-26
, 00:10
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Posts: 716 |
Thanked: 303 times |
Joined on Sep 2009
@ Sheffield, UK
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#174
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True, but if you're using N900 in corporate environment the freedom is quite attractive. It is also possible to vote with your money as consumer, just a bit harder. That is why I endorse a donation-based system where the users like you and me, being part of community, can vote with their wallet. Because sometimes a feature or a bugfix is worth some money.
Yes, OSS also supported sound cards which ALSA did not support. X.Org also still does not fully support some graphics cards. It is all a matter of 1) developer itch or financial incent 2) rarity of hardware or feature. If PA or KDE4 or ALSA doesn't cut it for you, you use the predecessor (legacy software) instead. There is nothing wrong with that, and there is nothing wrong with running an old, stable version of an OS. I also gave PA as example because it supports audio over network seemingly. There is no such thing for OSX or Windows, while PA is ported to OSX and Windows.
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2009-09-26
, 03:54
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Posts: 739 |
Thanked: 242 times |
Joined on Sep 2007
@ Montreal
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#175
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If the hardware vendors can't make business then it's really game over.Their current business model is mostly based on licensing. It's a tough market of big investments that require big operations to be profitable. The competition is fierce. And still free software is doing some progress in that area as well, so someone is putting the brain to work with business models considering OSS.
If they were commodity you would find several options to choose at the same level or better. This happens in the traditional desktop, but it's still not the case in the mobile. The foundations and the API are all public so there is no hard obstacle for the free software community to commoditize them. As mentioned before, even Nokia is a contributor supporting directly or indirectly projects like Mozilla or Canola.
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2009-09-26
, 04:14
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Posts: 739 |
Thanked: 242 times |
Joined on Sep 2007
@ Montreal
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#176
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2009-09-26
, 05:24
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Posts: 716 |
Thanked: 303 times |
Joined on Sep 2009
@ Sheffield, UK
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#177
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2009-09-26
, 05:38
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Posts: 739 |
Thanked: 242 times |
Joined on Sep 2007
@ Montreal
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#178
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You lock it down you gain a competitive advantage. You buy yourself a few months leeway while they are hacking away trying to clone your device.
As was said earlier, if you don't do that they may even release a clone product before the official product itself launches.
I do not necessarily agree with the Release Early, Release Often for all software though. For one I wish KDE 4 had not come out until it was up to standard with KDE 3. Too many distros have adopted KDE 4 and practically dropped KDE 3, when 4 is just not ready yet. Had it not been "released early" they would have stuck with 3 that bit longer and avoided the ton of teething problems people have with 4.
I get it, you need people to test it. But surely there are plenty enough people willing to risk early software rather than forcing it onto an unwilling public. But this is getting off topic.
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2009-09-26
, 08:03
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Posts: 3,105 |
Thanked: 11,088 times |
Joined on Jul 2007
@ Mountain View (CA, USA)
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#179
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Do you imply that hiding the hardware "API" (registers) will somehow prevent others from reverse engineering the chips to clone them?
I mean, with millions at stake, I'm sure they can afford a few IDA Pro hackers... Binary is source code after all, no matter how obfuscated you make it...
If a few kid can crack games, I'm sure dedicated people can reverse engineer anything!
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2009-09-26
, 11:47
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Posts: 3,397 |
Thanked: 1,212 times |
Joined on Jul 2008
@ Netherlands
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#180
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For one I wish KDE 4 had not come out until it was up to standard with KDE 3. Too many distros have adopted KDE 4 and practically dropped KDE 3, when 4 is just not ready yet.
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