icycalm wrote:So the advantage of open source software is that it encourages, say Google to work harder than it otherwise would? Like setting a hungry wolf after yourself while running so that you'll run faster?
No, that is just a side-effect one observes. The Linux kernel is used for various purposes by most of the major technology companies because they don't want to re-invent the wheel dozens of times. (That's why open-source exists to begin with.) For instance, and this isn't a perfect example, but Google originally forked the Linux kernel into an Android kernel, but later re-integrated the Linux kernel because they couldn't keep up with the rapid pace of Linux development.
So your theory that open-source = bad may have some truth, but the reality is that Linux is like a software
cancer that has spread to virtually everything. They're putting it in cars now too -- wtf? It's what we have. And it would take an enormous amount of work for a single company like Microsoft to be able to replicate those results in a closed-source fashion. Google couldn't even do it with their fork, now imagine trying to do it from scratch....
That is not to say open-source software is "better", just that it has
won, to some extent. Why did you choose phpBB and not vBulletin or Invision Power Boards? I don't know IPB, but my experience with vBulletin has been vastly better than phpBB. But whatever your reason was, it's probably similar to why companies choose Linux. It's free, popular, familiar, and it gets the job done well enough. If not even you can bring yourself to choose the proprietary solution, how can you expect companies the world over to only use closed-source software because of a principle? What does the principle accomplish that can't be accomplished for a lower price? Your principle only seems relevant to people for whom money isn't any object at all -- which is understandable given your background -- but money is always an object even for wealthy corporations. I don't see any way to change that, ever.
icycalm wrote:And here's another question that someone should be asking: why do open source games suck but not operating systems?
Freetard games are developed by sad, fat losers who live with their moms. Most freetard operating systems are also developed this way. But big, fancy open-source projects like Linux and Firefox are developed directly by or with the backing of corporations. Firefox development is funded by Google (your wolf analogy comes to mind... I do not understand this lol) and Linux kernel developers are directly employed by Red Hat, Intel, IBM, Samsung, Google, Oracle, NVIDIA, Cisco, AMD, and countless other corporations. There are other examples too like
OpenStack.
I don't see these as exceptions either, because to me, good software is created or at least funded by companies regardless of the licensing. (Even then, of course, it could still suck.) A good piece of open-source software that
wasn't produced by a company would be a true exception. I've said VLC is one, but I've never used anything different aside from WMP. Are you telling me there is a better one that costs money, or just that there "could be" in some nebulous proprietary-only future where making pay-to-use media players is suddenly a profitable business venture?
So let me revise: big and complex software can only be good if BIG COMPANIES create it or fund it, and the licensing has no inherent effect on the quality (that we know of), but it can affect adoption. Small, simple software can be created by just about anyone, and the licensing here does matter because people will almost always choose the most powerful of the cheapest options, i.e. the open-source ones since they get all the plugins and extensions. And that's why Opera is still irrelevant despite being "better" in some theoretical way according to you. So how does your theory improve on what I've just said? I don't think it does. You've backpedaled on half a dozen things this whole conversation. I know it's because you don't care about this stuff. But I don't go into the STG threads announcing that STGs are irrelevant because I've read Nietzsche and visited lots of cities therefore I know such things. I simply don't read those threads, or if I do, I don't say anything until I've learned more. You taught me this kind of respect.
By the way.
icycalm wrote:there's a good chance that you are merely pretending to spot in on games because everyone else is spotting it
It is, erm, not the least bit insulting that you think I'm incapable of spotting everything that's wrong with this:
Or even with well-known freetard games like Xonotic. I would have to be many ranks below even a GameFAQs poster. Hell, even below an artfag. If that were the case I think you wouldn't even want me breathing on your forum, yet you're replying to my posts.
I know it's hard to tell where exactly people are ranked in relation to each other from such a high altitude, like trying to distinguish dwarfs from giants on the ground while looking out an airplane. But really? I can't spot the problems with freetard games? How would I even be able to write legible English with that kind of deficient brain function?
Some unimportant clarifications: Linux doesn't lack proper multidisplay support for work, only for games, where it can get screwy. And NVIDIA TEGRA K1 is a mobile graphics processor that got a lot of
hype at CES 2014. But I spoke too soon now that I've seen some actual benchmarks of it:
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2014/01/13 ... -graphics/ And here I thought it was supposed to be competitive to actual graphics cards.
Finally, the simple answer to why I'm here and not on some interminably boring Linux forum is that reading
On the Genealogy of Art Games was like waking up from a very long sleep, therefore I value your opinions on everything. (And I haven't even read the third essay yet. My order never came and I placed it nearly two years ago lol! Keep forgetting to ask you about that...)
I do love videogames and that's what I signed up for, but after one or two failed attempts to talk about even the simplest ones intelligently (e.g.,
Hotline Miami), I'm giving myself a good 10 years or more before I start sharing my opinions on them again, if ever. There's only one game I consider myself an expert on right now and it's not worth reviewing. I know that makes it look like I don't care about games, but it doesn't matter what you think of me as long as I can read your opinions. I mean it does matter, but it's not something I can easily change right now.