Technology – Page 103

You Wanna Make Us Linux Users Pay, Microsucks? See THIS…

Yup, that’s right Microsucks, THAT’S what you’ll get. See this video by Steve Ballmer, which I came across in this Yahoo! News story on how Microsucks want Red Hat users to ‘pay up’ for ‘their intellectual property‘. Of course, that was coming – pretty evident from the protection-racket type of deals its been doing with Novell and all. Could he please actually then tell us what stuff Linux is violating, because I’m pretty sure the Linux community has ammo to counter-sue, with bigwigs like Sun, IBM, and the ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Google ready to stand up for us.

Guess what? After acting like chums with Novell, Microsucks decides to go ahead and slander Linux on its Get The Facts ~~Right~~ Wrong site. That’s EEE (Embrace, Extend, Destroy) and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Destruction) at work again, eh? I’d really like to see those folks hunt down all Linux users and make them pay up.

That’s what their gameplan is – to get users of distros like Red Hat scared, and run away from Linux; and even if they DO want Linux, make them choose ones from Novell, whom they can ditch later. Of course, it’s not so much about the normal users, but the corporate ones whom they’re targeting. They’re counting on those legal eagles in companies to persuade the boss that Microsucks would be a better vendor to buy from.

But Linux WILL survive…no matter what they try… :p

ArtRage

Okies, NOT a sponsored post. I saw this software on BBC World’s Click, and I was SO impressed that I just had to share it. Yes, it’s a software for Windows, and yes, the full version costs money, but it’s so bloody good, that I forgive them. 🙂

The software’s called ArtRage. Simply calling it MS Paint on steroids is frankly, a disgrace – it should NOT be tainted by the name of Paint. I’ve never used, so pardon me there, but what I saw on Click was enough to have my eyes popping out. First, the interface is simply stunning. I’d give it a design award ANY DAY over an Apple product. What makes ArtRage different from other stuff is the fact that it tries to emulate real-world painting instruments and effects, than trying to be a graphics editing program, and thus it does a good job. So you’ve stuff like tracing, watercolour effects (yes, those gentle mixed shades), crayons, markers and whatnot! And this is what I can say only from the show, and I’m sure this stuff does a LOT more.

Definitely not a software for digital imaging people, because they’ll get too bored trying to get an effect quickly which won’t be that much of a problem for someone proficient in Photoshop / GIMP. For the general public though, THIS seems to be a real cool application…