kostyakow

Using your logic, we can conclude that no one should be able to use the wheel, because at some point in the past someone else invented it?

>/g/ in particular is known for much pointless banter arguing over the best GNU+Linux distro

You mean arguing about the second best GNU/Linus distro. Everyone knows the best distro is Gentoo.

>Github maintained by someone with a troll username?

>Comments like this

>> IMPORTANT: release two major sanctioned UIs, one for autists, one with inbuilt support for the previous list so that plebs can't get confused with setting it up and autists don't complain about it getting in their way. de geso > I would suggest a "Advanced options" where the autists can rejoice with all kinds of options (and it doesn't frighten the normalfags, since it's not shown by default). Also, 2 UIs would be chaos to maintain.

The project originated from 4chan's /g/ (technology) board. It works differently from Reddit and HN, since there's no karma, and the comments are anonymous.

This caused it to develop a unique culture. On one hand, it enables people to express their real opinions without being afraid of getting downvoted by hivemind. On the other hand, it attracts trolls and causes a lot of rudeness and offensive behaviour.

I like the website, because you can see the true nature of people, and you don't feel the pressure to say what everyone else wants you to say.

>Talk about not needing to be an expert to use it, but then a "learn more" button sending people to github?

We were working on this for only about a month, and Tox is not even in the alpha stage yet. Once we get the GUI working properly, we will surely upload binaries to the website.

Tox aims to be a secure replacement for Skype.

There's several other similar projects, but they are usually hard to set up and use for an average user.

Tox is FLOS software developed by community, and currently licensed under GPLv3. We are considering changing the license to something more permissive, so it would be possible to put it on the App & Win8 Stores.

Currently, it is in really early stages of development. But we already have basic IM, and nCurses interface. We use NaCl library for encryption and will probably add FFmpeg for video.

We are working on a cross-platform GUI using Qt5. Please note that the screen-shots on the main website are only mockups, and (in my opinion) should have been labeled as such.

Since the website is down, here's some links:

Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/projecttox/

Core code: https://github.com/irungentoo/ProjectTox-Core

Qt GUI code: https://github.com/nurupo/ProjectTox-Qt-GUI

Website code: https://github.com/stal888/ProjectTox-Website

IRC Freenode chanel: #InsertProjectNameHere

>I'm not trusting a messaging service whose marketing site I can't even reach

You would rather trust a huge corporation instead of a community-developed project?

>The third project I would not like to leave unmentioned is LISP, a fascinating enterprise of a completely different nature. With a few very basic principles at its foundation, it has shown a remarkable stability. Besides that, LISP has been the carrier for a considerable number of in a sense our most sophisticated computer applications. LISP has jokingly been described as “the most intelligent way to misuse a computer”. I think that description a great compliment because it transmits the full flavour of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts.

This article feels like it's from a completely different era -- an early age of computers with wild discoveries and unexplored frontiers.

But in reality it wasn't that long ago and a lot of the early computer pioneers are still alive. Computing is still a really young field!

I didn't dodge the question, because I agree with the first part -- Russia is a horrible country with a corrupt government that imprisons/kills activists and journalists.

I only disagree with a minor detail you mentioned -- there would be no difference if he was female, because in Russia there is no discrimination against women (at least not more then in any Western country).

I don't think anything would be different if he was a woman.

Yes, this is PR. But what else were this companies supposed to do?

If they disclosed any information, then they would get into a lot of trouble with the government and possible get arrested.

Thank you for this this great article!

I am currently trying to learn more about the hardware and lower-level aspects of computer, and this was a really interesting read.

You may be interested in checking out an emulator for original IBM computer my friend wrote:

https://github.com/Alegend45/IBM5150

It's in really early stages of development, and the BIOS barely boots. Nevertheless, I enjoy reading the code and trying to understand how it works.

I am trying to help him out with it, but I know very little about this kind of stuff (I am just starting out learning about hardware), so I haven't been of much help.

Since you are knowledgeable in this subject area you can help him hack on it if you're interested!

There is some things which are totally legal, but morally wrong. Canonical doesn't have a legal obligation to contribute kernel code, but it doesn't make their behaviour right, and kernel developers have every right to criticize them.

F.U.D.

You said that Ubuntu is not "flexible" anymore, but now you are running OS X and Win8? Are you kidding me? It's like moving to North Korea because of NSA's spying.

The only slow part about Ubuntu is Unity, but if you try running OS X, Ubuntu and Windows on the same-priced hardware, Ubuntu will _still_ probably win. And you can easily replace it with "sudo apt-get install whatever-DE-you-want && sudo apt-get remove unity". After that, all of the bloat is gone.

For example, Ubuntu + XMonad runs _perfectly_ on a $200 Chromebook, which could not handle Unity.

Also, it may be a big surprise for you, but gasp Ubuntu is not the only Linux distro. You want fast boot time -- try Arch. Want a stable distro? install Debian. Need an easy-to-use distro similar to Ubuntu, but with a normal DE? consider Mint.

>Ubuntu's Unity had become synonymous to Microsoft pushing their Metro UI into my throat was a nail in the coffin.

I don't understand this. It seems like you dislike Win8 UI so much, mere associating of Unity with Metro caused you to stop using Ubuntu -- to switch to Win8?