“Any other license or contract that includes terms similar to the terms in paragraphs 6 or 7 of Section 11 of the GNU General Public License version 3.

How bad could it be? Now, I’m not a lawyer. But when I read the sections they don’t like … it’s littered with phrases like “propagate by procuring conveyance” which sounds something like this in my head: “blabbity unicorns blah and cucumbers might take blah over dick tracy the world hurmph.” What exactly does Paragraphs 6 or 7 of Section 11 of the GPLv3 say? Here’s the block of unreadable text in its’ entirety:

If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a covered work, and grant a patent license to some of the parties receiving the covered work authorizing them to use, propagate, modify or convey a specific copy of the covered work, then the patent license you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered work and works based on it.

A patent license is “discriminatory” if it does not include within the scope of its coverage, prohibits the exercise of, or is conditioned on the non-exercise of one or more of the rights that are specifically granted under this License. You may not convey a covered work if you are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is in the business of distributing software, under which you make payment to the third party based on the extent of your activity of conveying the work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the parties who would receive the covered work from you, a discriminatory patent license (a) in connection with copies of the covered work conveyed by you (or copies made from those copies), or (b) primarily for and in connection with specific products or compilations that contain the covered work, unless you entered into that arrangement, or that patent license was granted, prior to 28 March 2007.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Batman! What the fsck does that say? Here’s my plain English translation:

If you (or one of your partners) provide software licensed under GPLv3, and agree not to sue anyone — the agreement not to sue (and the use of patents that are in the software) will apply to all future recipients of that software.

Any patent agreement which attempts to nullify any rights given to you or others in the GPLv3 is invalid. This includes paying a partner distribute the software for you and agreeing not to sue them.

Did the meaning change significantly? I’d say not very much. Is the spirit intact? I strongly believe so. If you violate any part of my “plain english” version, you almost certainly violate the original document. Someone is bound to argue that I’m simplifying this too much — you’re absolutely right. This is the point.

Want to know why I’m giving it away? Keep reading….

It’s been about 2 months since anything new on the Linux front has been released for Unreal Tournament 3. In fact, the only files release to Linux enthusiasts has been a buggy Linux demo server beta – which is completely useless now, since the retail game has shipped.

Ever since I heard there would be a Linux Client shipping on the retail Windows disc I was extremely excited.

“Woohoo! A real, live Linux-supported game, with the client on the disc! I’ll be in heaven!”

Then I read that the game wouldn’t have a Linux client on the disc, but it would be available when the game hit retail, which is still just fine and dandy… I can deal with that – it’s pretty much par for the course.

Unwittingly, I ran out to my local game retailer the day the game hit retail, and purchased a Collector’s Edition of UT3 for about $60 bones. Like other people, I figured it would be in my best interest to buy the more expensive collector’s edition and voluntarily provide additional financial support the continued development of Linux friendly video games.

I actually installed Windows Vista POS Edition for a week, just to play the game.

My initial impressions from playing this game that it was designed for consoles and then (badly?) ported to the PC. Hell, even the videos on the collector’s edition bonus disc, ALL of the videos of the offices of Epic Games show the play testers using Xbox 360s… there isn’t a single person shown playing the game on a PC. Additionally, some other things indicated this was the case, like the initial game menu system responds INSTANTLY to keyboard input, but there is a significant delay when using a mouse pointer to navigate the menus.

I’m not much of a gamepad person, but just for the sake of trying to test out the controls to see what would happen… I hooked up a gamepad and started playing the game without a keyboard and mouse. I ended up scoring better with the gamepad – no kidding. The gamepad just had a better feel to it, and didn’t feel like the inputs were lagging behind the action. On top of that major transgression, with no Linux server available to date, I am of the opinion that the game is doomed to fail miserably.

This is not bad news for Epic, by the way.

I’ve known for awhile that Epic is not first and foremost a video game company, and if you think I’m out of my mind, listen to me for just a moment. I can hear the cries from the enthusiasts already screaming blasphemy, but hear me out. Epic makes video game engines and sell them. The video games that result from coding the engine is just a byproduct that’s been polished up a tiny little bit.

Don’t believe me? I dare you to watch the E3 videos of UT3. They aren’t trying to sell their video game – they’re pitching all the features of the engine. The profit margins of selling an engine are far, far higher and much more lucrative than selling video games.

I’ve got more than a few friends in the video game business, and several have worked with Unreal Engine 3 projects. They have made the claim that even the engine source code contains inefficient and absolutely rediculously bad programming that seems like someone with a bad grasp of simple logic coded the entire thing.

Ever seen something like this?

I’ll just give away my copy. I’m not going to be playing it anytime soon, as far as I can tell.

And even IF Epic pulls their head out of their collective asses 5 minutes from now and actually releases a Linux client – I’m not planning on installing it. It’s a console game. I’m not much of a console kind of guy.

Just make a comment on this post with a valid email address, and I will choose at random one lucky person to win my own personal copy of Unreal Tournament 3 Collector’s Edition and have it to your door by Christmas… which is faster than the Linux client will likely be released.

I am serious as a heart attack.

Contest is OVER! It ended at December 16th at midnight, mountain standard time.

The winner was Tyler, picked at random.org out of 107 entries after removing duplicate comments. Congratulations Tyler, you’re number 86!

You’ve got an email waiting for you Tyler, reply to it asap so I can get it out in the mail tomorrow.

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE AND OFFENSIVE SEXIST ALLITERATION AHEAD

Fedora helpfully provides a list of “Forbidden Items” that are not included with the distribution, nor are they easily obtained for a Linux neophyte. I’ll list them here:

• MP3 Support (In any application)
• nVidia Graphics Driver
• ATI Graphics Driver
• NDISwrapper network driver
• Real Media (and Player)
• DVD Playback
• Cryptography
• Sun’s Java
• VMware
• Flash Player
• Acrobat Reader

If that wasn’t enough, on that same website, the fine chaps at Fedora attempt to insult our intelligence by offering ridiculous alternatives, here’s the best example:

Are they serious? Who in their right mind would suggest using the Ogg Theora codec to watch a DVD?

I think the suggestion is taken out of context. This is what it should actually say:

Fedora Suggests: Use a broomstick dipped in Icy Hot to sodomize yourself.

The new “Codec Buddy” in Fedora 8 (aka Codeina) appears to be a get rich quick scheme hatched by Fluendo, the 3rd party vendor behind the program. Hmm… the name of the company sounds like the word “innuendo” – that’s catch! Their motto should be something like this:

“We snatch your cash when you wanna watch some snatch.”

The total price of all the codecs provided: WMA, WMV, ASF, MPEG2, MPEG4, MP3, AC3… all for low, low price of somewhere around or near $50 US Dollars after exchange fees. Buy the Complete Set of Playback Plugins for the i386 architecture now, and you only pay two easy payments of fuck right the hell off, and feel free to eat some shit pie if you decide to switch to 64-bit, because you’ll need to buy them all over again.

Codeina Screenshots:

What is the solution? Glad you asked. Thankfully someone who doesn’t have their head firmly lodged up their ass over at Livna.org decided to build a most excellent package repository. This collection of useful software provides things like fglrx, gstreamer-ffmpeg, gstreamer-plugins-bad, gstreamer-plugins-ugly, lame, libdvdcss, madwifi, ndiswrapper, ntfs, and nvidia just to name a few.

Unless you’re intimately familiar with these names of things that “just work” in other Linux distributions, it’s everything that Fedora wants to charge you $50 for, plus dozens more codecs and drivers that makes your system be able to do things with your computer. You can’t do small things like oh…. connect to the internet, browse the web, play DVDs or music, or even play some video games.

Fedora isn’t all bad, by the way.

I believe a quick review is in order to restore my karma. Time to get the testbeds ready!

For a Linux enthusiast like myself, I’m not gonna lie, Fedora is an excellent distribution. Installing is a simple affair, configuring all the junk that they leave out is relatively simple (once you find it), and it’s got some really sweet features that are just icing on the cake. The small things are what matters most. If you’re familiar with any Gnome-based distribution, you’ll be right at home on Fedora.

The bonus feature that many reviewers may gloss over is the fact that Redhat Enterprise Linux (RHEL for short) is based on Fedora Core 6. Familiarity with RHEL can be a determining factor in hiring for a job. In fact, I think I’m going to run Fedora 8 until CentOS 5.1 is released and give that a try. CentOS is the free version of RHEL.

Without more from me, let’s see tons of screenshots of the installation:

Two things stand out to begin with. First, dictionary word password warning – not a bad idea. Then, the desktop changes colors based on what time it is.

Neat! Notice the system time in each of those screenshots… morning, noon, evening, night. The colors change in incremental values, but that gives you a pretty good idea of how it works. I love it. Whoever thought of this is worthy of a pat on the back… and certainly worthwhile for people who don’t get out much.

The package manager is useful, but generally I prefer a command line.

Firefox dies a slow death and requires manual installation of Adobe Flash Player:

A built-in firewall and SELinux policies are pretty smart to keep around if you’re operating in a DMZ or with hacker-magnet ports open to the world.

Other than previously discussed above, Fedora is a very solid distribution. Once it’s up and running, it’s great. It’s stable, feels faster and snappier than Ubuntu (especially in Firefox), and has nifty little things like PulseAudio installed by default which is pretty snazzy. Another thing – if you’re looking for pre-built proprietary software packages, RPM is pretty much the standard for companies to provide.

PulseAudio is a very welcome inclusion, but I’m not quite sure how Fedora expects people to be listening to multiple audio streams at the same time without any audio codecs – nevertheless, a very nice addition.

Updated Gnome 2.2 features like leaving a message for someone when a PC is locked are pretty groovy as well…

In the end, Fedora is great for a geek like me, but quite possibly the least favorable choice for someone who isn’t very familiar with Linux.

If you’re ever up Fedora creek without a codec, make sure you bookmark this page.

I feel so much better now.

It’s not something I take personally, as I figure he’s pretty busy. However, when I wrote a similar letter after the release of Half Life 2, I received an immediate reply in less than a few minutes – pretty astonishing. Here’s the unanswered letter that mentions the “L” word – Linux.

Since I wrote this letter, that article has received over 27,000 views – at a rate of more than 500 hits per day after the initial spike of hitting the front page of Digg.

Here is a picture of the stats:

________________________________
Subject: This Is Not Your Average Email
From: wayne@fsckin.com
Date: Wed, October 17, 2007 2:45 pm
To: gaben@valvesoftware.com

Gabe,

With the amount of email you likely receive, I really hope you have a good handle on GTD.

I love your games, and please allow me to extend a huge pat on the back to everyone who works for Valve on finally shipping Team Fortress 2. I’ve been waiting as many years as you have. I really enjoyed the Developer Commentary, and hope that future games that you publish include that feature.

You probably don’t enjoy hearing the “L word” mentioned over and over via email, forums, news, etc, however, I’d like to let you know that I have written a how to on playing all of the games in the Orange Box on Linux. Since it was published just 3 days ago, it has received well over 13,000 unique visitors. I’ve written dozens of articles, and most simply do not see this level of attention.

http://www.fsckin.com/2007/10/15/how-to-run-team-fortress-2-half-life-2-hl2-ep-12-in-ubuntu-using-wine/

It is easily understood that providing a Linux client simply makes your rendering engine and tool chain a little bit more attractive to those who wish to license your engine. In the same vein, trying to keep a licensed, secured, up to date Windows installation around just for your games is also an inefficient usage of my resources.

Add my voice to the growing number of people who have switched from Windows and crossed over to using Linux “on the desktop.”

I’d like to propose a toast: Here’s to dreaming of the day when we can run your _fantastic_ video games in Linux.

Best Regards,
Wayne Richardson

________________________________

Still nothing to say Gabe?

This Comcast BitTorrent filtering issue is getting more and more attention in traditional media, congress, etc.  We’ve got to keep blogging about it, keep the negative buzz going and tell Comcast to take it and shove it.  If you want to save some money and still stick it to the man, read down below for my tip on saving $50 or more with a 10 minute phone call.

the read, it’s misleading, confusing and infuriates me as a customer who have a legitimate problem.

—————————————————————— 
Customer Account Executive Talking Points
Peer to Peer
Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer Access to Peer to Peer

Summary/ Overview of Topic
* An in-depth AP story ran on Friday, October 19, 2007 that suggests Comcast is hindering its customers’ ability to use BitTorrent, a peer to peer file sharing application.

Specifics

1. Comcast is committed to providing all of our customers with an excellent Internet experience.
   We do not block access to any Web site or applications, including peer-to-peer (P2P) services like BitTorrent.
2. We never prevent P2P activity, or block access to any P2P applications, but rather manage the network in such a way that this activity does not degrade the broadband experience for other users.
3. Network management is absolutely essential to provide a good Internet experience for our customers. All major ISPs manage their traffic in some way and many use similar tools.
4. Network management helps us perform critical work that protects our customers from things like spam, viruses, the negative effects of network congestion, or attacks to their PCs. As threats on the Internet continue to grow, our network management tools will continue to evolve and keep pace so that we can maintain a good, reliable online experience for all of our customers. 
5. We have posted a new FAQ on our website making clear to our customers the steps we are taking to protect the customer experience for all of our customers. (Note: FAQs are located in the “Connection” category of Comcast.net)
   

Impact to Comcast
* Due to this article, customers may call in to inquire about limited or blocked access to BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer applications.

Customer Q&A
Listed below are some anticipated Customer Questions with suggested responses. Use Verbatim Use as Guidance

IF Customers asks…  THEN respond…

Do you block access to peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent?
* No. We do not block access to any Web site or applications, including BitTorrent. Our customers use the Internet for downloading and uploading files, watching movies and videos, streaming music, sharing digital photos, accessing numerous peer-to-peer sites, VOIP applications like Vonage, and thousands of other applications online.

Is my peer-to-peer activity going to be impacted by Comcast?
* We never prevent P2P activity, or block access to any P2P applications, but rather manage the network in such a way that this activity does not degrade the broadband experience for other users.

* We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that you can continue to enjoy these applications. Peer-to-peer activity consumes a disproportionately large amount of network resources, and therefore poses the biggest challenge to maintaining a good broadband experience for all users – including the overwhelming majority of our customers who don’t use P2P applications.

What do you mean when you say you manage your network?
* Network management is absolutely essential to provide a good Internet experience for our customers. All major ISPs manage their traffic in some way and many use similar tools.

* Network management helps us perform critical work that protects our customers from things like spam, viruses, the negative effects of network congestion, or attacks to their PCs. As threats on the Internet continue to grow, our network management tools will continue to evolve and keep pace so that we can maintain an excellent, reliable online experience for all of our customers.

Do you discriminate against particular types of online content?
* No. There is no discrimination based on the type of content. Our customers enjoy unfettered access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer. We respect our customers’ privacy and we don’t monitor specific customer activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior, such as which Web sites they visit. Therefore, we do not know whether any individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.

—————————————————————— 
Thanks to cizzop, your social engineering skills are pretty amazing.  That said, that’s one hell of a response from Comcast.  Technical support is going to be following this document to the letter and will never admit that anything is wrong.

Now, here’s my tip to save some money, don’t even bother talking to Technical Support, you’re just wasting your (and secondly their) time.

Instead, call their cancellation department.  This always works!  I’ve never had them deny me a credit or reduction in price when I had a problem and complained about it.  Thankfully, cancellations is far more helpful than technical support.

1. Call their cancellations department.
2. Remember the name of the person who answers.
3. The conversation should be something like this:
   1. I’ve read the Associated Press article on filtering and have a problem with it.
   2. I’ve gotten a quote from another ISP and it would save me <number> dollars a year to switch.
   3. I enjoy the service and would like to keep it, but….
   4. Is there is anything Comcast can do to make up for the inconvenience?
   5. If they refuse, insist on speaking to a supervisor.
4. When they give you a huge discount for the next few months or even a month free…
   Thank the person by name and tell them you appreciate their time and personal attention.
5. Feel free to buy me a beer.

Remember:  The Cancellations Department for Comcast is like any other large company, and we can exploit this very easily.  Comcast pays people to do whatever you want to retain you as a customer.

By allowing them to ‘save’ the account, you’re actually helping out the cancellations agent get better stats and maybe even get a bonus.  They’ll be happy to talk to you as long as you’re courteous, and above all, don’t yell or use profanity.  Be assertive, not aggressive.

sudo sed -e ‘s/\sfeisty/ gutsy/g’ -i /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

12:12 AM Started downloading.

12:30 Installing all the packages.  Downloading from the Gutsy repositories at 6MB/sec didn’t take a long time.

12:42AM I’m concurrently downloading Linux Mint while all the packages continue to install.

12:46AM DONE.  Reboot.

2:45AM Ohsh!t… Houston we have a problem.  I’m gonna rant here for a second.  When I use the brand new awesome thing that smells of a combination of fresh horse manure and burning hair called “Screens and Graphics Preferences” and I select my monitor as shown:

Notice the little description text that shows that I’m choosing an LCD screen that ONLY displays in a native resolution of  1680 by 1050?

Now, see the list of available resolutions once I save that setting:

Where the hell is the 1680 by 1050 option?  NOT THERE!

Now, I know somebody is going to say ‘oh well just go and edit the xorg.conf file and you should be all set.’  Here is my preemptive response:

When is the last time you had to edit the registry in Windows to add a resolution option?

I rest my case.

It’s not fantastic.  Seems like the community-developed package directory is by FAR more superior to Portage, and silly things like adding repository URLs to apt-get or yum.

I gave Fedora 7 a try and… I’m writing this to you right now in their wonderful Gnome environment.  I have the same problem I did with it about a year ago, which is no mp3/etc support out of the box, nor an easy solution like Ubuntu has with a waiver of responsibility.

I also attempted to get the nVidia binary driver working in Fedora just now with a very easy guide… that failed miserably.

I think from now on I’m just going to work towards having a dual-boot setup.  Windows for when I need to get things done (or blow people up), and Ubuntu when I feel like a challenge and learning something new.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. The LiveCD is mostly worthless.
   • Installing must be done in a certain manner or you waste hours of time compiling.
   • If you install via the reccomended manner, you end up with an out of date system.
   • “emerge -U world” breaks your system.  How the hell am I supposed to be able to use this heap o’ garbage if I can’t update the system (see #4)
2. The minimal install CD is usable only by someone with a 98 page manual in their hands.
   • I’m NOT kidding!  98 pages.  I wont bore you with a link.
3.  Gentoo does not support one of two things which are not working by default:
   • ATI Video Card
   • Nvidia Video Card
4. After some hours of research, the “proper” way to update the system is run these commands:
   • emerge sync
   • emerge -uDpv world
   • emerge -uDv world
   • emerge -pv depclean
   • emerge -v depclean
   • revdep-rebuild -av
   • revdep-rebuild -v
   • dispatch-conf
5. EIGHT COMMANDS!  I’m done with Gentoo for quite some time.

I’m back to running Ubuntu right now.  It’s a temporary solution because I was unable to burn a CD from a LiveCD.

 Someone suggested on Digg that I give Slackware a try.  I think I should do him one better and try Solaris x86.  But I know for a  fact that I can’t get past the bootloader because my cdrom drive is Serial ATA and will not work – period.

 I think the next Linux distribution in my path is going to be … PCLinuxOS.  A LiveCD with heavily touted hard drive installation based on Mandrake.