Democrats can't run Linux
THE U.S. Democratic Party has been touting its IT credentials as proof that it is a better bet than luddite John McCain who has never turned on a computer.
However, cracks in the Democrats' veneer have been showing lately, notably with the appointment of the technology and privacy anti-Christ Joe Biden as vice presidential candidate. It seems the Democrat's open sauce credentials are being questioned.
If you visit the US Democratic Party Convention site and try to use the streaming software using Linux you will be told you should pay for your operating system like every other good clean living American.
Users trying to see the stream are told they will have to install Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or a Mac with Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard (OS 10.5).
Clearly the future under the democrats will be entirely proprietary. To be fair, the Democrats have not banned Firefox.
But it is strange that the most tech-savvy party, promoting the most technologically difficult event since the Olympics, can't get its streaming software to run on Linux. ยต
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I guess we have another candidate for the D in DRM.
I guess all the open-sourcers are moving to Canada, eh? I doubt the Republicans want them either.
Yes, it's MS' latest dastardly plan to screw out everyone else who may *possibly* have a piece of the IT pie, no matter how specialised or obscure.

P.s. the DNC convention in 2004 saw delegates have their cameraphones 'minded' by RIAA goons in case they pirated some of the acts performing at events. Now that's classy!
Well, Nick, do they have to stream their media from a Linux box? Is Linux the only good OS around?
Why would anyone with a brain want to go to the DNC website? As the saying goes, it's not unusual for the passionate youth to lean left, but the discerning man leans right.
You completely missed the point. It's not what it streams FROM that's the issue. It's that Linux users can't VIEW the video. We could care less if they were hosting it from Mac or Windows or even DOS. The problem is that only Windows and Mac users can watch it.
The "DNCC Video Experience" (oooh, fancy) site requires you to download MS Silverlight AND the Move Networks media player to watch the conventions vids. 
Why would anyone go through all that hassle when you can watch the whole thing live using Flash-embedded players on any number of news sites? Pointless control-freakery by the DNC and MS.
the dnc webserver is actually a linux server!

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.demconvention.com

correct, the reason the video doesnt work on linux is that it uses silverlight (there is an oss implimentation of this, but it is not very usable yet)

http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

......why does anyone use silverlight anyway? flash is much more widespread. once again microsoft tossing a big blanket over what is effectively a standard, promoting their own equivalent which its not needed...

I'm using XP SP3, and it asked me to download Silverlight to see the Democratic Convention stuff. First the Olympics, now the DC. Looks like Microsoft is getting quite successful at owning the internet!
NBC had live streaming video for the olympics, if you were stupid enough to download Micro$ucks SilverLight and agree to its EULA conditions (like phoning home w/ your details) on your faithful LoseDoze O/S or Mac OSX.

Jim
...the point was that it was impossible to view it on Linux....
Their server had nothing to do with it, but you had to run Windows or Mac to view....
@hoohoo:

Actually, it really is.
I got a nice video playing the political message , but I didn't turn the sound on. 
That would have been too much.

Maybe Ubuntu works where other Linux OSs don't!
Yep, that sucks. Download two new buggy plugins just to watch stupid video -- when there are 1001 other perfectly fine ways to stream it that anyone can watch by now from any computer.

Interestingly enough, barackobama.com videos are Flash-based, and display beautifully on my Linux boxes.
I think this is a hoot, because I'm a conservative and a Linux user (if you can imagine that), running Xubuntu, to be exact. 

That said, McCain is not someone I consider to be a true conservative, so unless he chooses a solid conservative running mate I like the sound of, such as Huckabee or Alaska governor Sarah Palin, I'll likely be voting third-party in the presidential race.
First, "discerning" and "discriminating" are synonyms. I'm not sure I'd claim either of these without thinking of the ramifications. My late-thirties self will stay democrat. Second, what can we as linux users really expect? We hold a really small portion of the market, and any commercial presence that share has is split between several different companies. I believe in the benefits of open source, but until we can get the rest of the world to see it, I can't blame anyone for preferring something that's pushed down their throat by the current market environment.
who is Bob Barr? whats a dumocrat?
It seems the Democrat's open sauce credentials are being questioned

Note the spelling of Source as Sauce. Hope it's a good Memphis style barbeque!

Fred - on 27 August 2008 posted:

> LOL!
> I think this is a hoot, because I'm a conservative 
> and a Linux user (if you can imagine that), 
> running Xubuntu, to be exact.

Shouldn't common-sense and logic dictate that *most* Linux users are Conservative? After all, we use an O/S that we install ourselves, after doing our own research to learn how.
We do so, even though we have not been given any form 
of "cradle to grave" insurance that it will run to our liking, nor have we been promised any form of relief if we are unsuccessful in getting it to run. But we don't care: we believe in taking the risks, and doing the educating and labor by ourselves. Even the financial aspects are based on self-choice and self-rule.