About tech

OpenOffice.org’s increasing dependence on Java is causing righteous indignation throughout the FOSS community. I agree on this point, not only on the grounds that a closed source runtime like Java (remember the early days of Trolltech’s Qt, anyone?) has no business being so heavily integrated into a open source project, especially one of such magnitude and importance. While I understand that creating a C++ module for database manipulation is no small feat and getting it out in any form by 2.0 trumped anti-Java concerns, it’s disappointing to say the least. For someone like me, who has JRE (reluctantly) anyway, for use with Azureus (I can’t help myself: it’s so feature-rich, and with such an attractive GUI), such things are no problem, except for perhaps the slowness and resource intensity associated with a Java program, it is a problem for other users, people I recommend OOo to who don’t have JRE. My hope is, by the time 3.0 rolls around, we see Java either opened up, or removed entirely from OOo. Preferably the latter: native code may be more complex, but it’s also far faster than scripting. Even if they have to keep the scripted elements, I would like to see them reimplemented in something like Python.

Via Rob comes the story that Hitachi is predicting 1TB hard drives by 2007, using their new “perpendicular storage” model. I wrote last year on Seagate’s plans to use laser heating to make half petabyte (500 terabytes) hard drives by 2010. Still, I could deal with 1TB drives. Imagine the amount of audio I could fit on that! I’d go ahead an reencode everything in (OGG-)FLAC, and that’s good for everybody. Again, though, I wonder how the logistics of internet service will scale to follow the change in available local storage.

Microsoft is having conniption fits over the idea that Brazil is courting Linux. Since Brazil is a relatively poor but populous country, certain members of its government have lobbied for years to use Linux and OSS in both government functions and in social programs. In response, Microsoft is offering to sell them a much shittier version of Windows at a lower price.

Features cut from the various Starter Editions have included support for multiple user accounts; networked printers; the ability to personalize desktops with multiple looks and feels for different users; and support for screen resolutions above 800 X 600 DPI (dots per inch) [sic]. Starter Edition also prevents users from launching more than three applications simultaneously. [Source: /.]

So, the options are any one of a number of varieties of Linux distribution and the entire catalogue of open-source software…. or a Windows environment comparable to something it put out in 1995. No separate user accounts? A maximum resolution of 800×600 (pixels, not DPI)? No network printers? Boy, you sure can do a lot with XP Starter Edition. They created the damn thing to try to stave off piracy in Asian countries. They say they’re pleased with the result so far, but one has to think that a technological populace used to simply pirating full versions of Windows isn’t going to be particularly receptive to paying for one so horribly neutered.