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"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

"Premium Ready" is this and this:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
• 1 GB of system memory.
• A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero, that is:.
  • Has a fucking WDDM Driver.
  • Supports Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • Supports 32 bits per pixel.
  • 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels (1280 x 1024)
  • 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  • 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  • Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP will tell you.
• 128 MB of graphics memory. WTF? it't 64M but it's really 128M
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
• DVD-ROM Drive3.
• Audio output capability. What, no mention of drivers?
• Internet access capability.

Oh yeah, and you paid a freaking Premium for what's going to be XP + 128MB RAM performance. 15 GB for the OS, 25 GB for Office, there's no room on this system for Linux now is there, chuckles Bill Gates to himself. Meanwhile, Mepis gives you all the same programs and features for a mere 2GB disk space and 128 MB of RAM, and not a lot of computer. I've run with a lot less.

Hot Air Graphics are here compared to KDE :

• a program menu with a search feature, old hat for KDE.
• a more integrated browser, KDE's Konqueror does much more We're talking seamless network integration, like ftp, sftp, http, smb, whatever to local files on top of the rest, not to mention complete user choice instead of the "helpful" world of extension stealing and Google blocking "integration" M$ is so fond of.
• Transparency, finally. This has already been compared above. Welcome to the late 90s, Mr. Gates.
• Window Preview Thumbnails and a useless 3d toy, because they have yet to develop a decent multi desktop and virtual screen window manager. Once again, this seriously lags free software like the 1999 kpager. Kpager looks nicer now but Enlightenment's is better still, and I still routinely run it with 24 or so virtual

I'm seeing more of that... like the recent WSJ rejection of all Linux because the distro tried would not work iTunes (and a few "complex" M$Office docs). It's too bad people don't see the magic combination of:

• Amarok, the awesome free music player.
• The Internet Archive's 34,000 concert Music Archive
• A music publisher that does not suck
• Cheap USB music players from walmart, orcheap good ones or software that makes expensive ones rock like they are worth the money.

The whole DRM fiasco is so avoidable and life without it is so much better. If work forces you to use Windoze, it sucks to be you but you don't have to let that take over your entertainment and home life.

By the way, the GUI that Xine makes does all the cool stuff from keyboard shortcuts you want from a video player. If you want a real video editor, go for kino or cinerella. M$ will never give you any of that any more than M$ Word can be used for publishing.

You-know-who DID stole these features from Amarok.

Quite possibly the best media player that Ive played with.

It has the following features:

      1. Searchable by partial keywords on title/artist
      2. Shows record art cover associated with the song
      3. Displays LYRICS (oooohhh)
      4. Plays both static media files and streaming medias
      5. Has minimal skin, but its better than WM.

I dare say, that you-know-who, has ripped off the open-source community of its ideas.

Oh yeah, its available only on Linux/KDE platforms.

After I posted my remark, I started doing some more digging around again. I did run across Psi, and was going to examine it further, but it some source compiling. Kopete appears to have similiar functions available to connect with a Psi client, but it requires svn access and more compiling. While looking further, I checked out Tapioca which had simple instructions to get it going (and a number of packages for whatever linux distrobution you use). It installed, it runs, now I just need one of my friends to test it on. ;)

I'm gonna have to say "me too."
Funny how I never hear people say the opposite: "Gee, I couldn't get anything done with KDE, so I switched to GNOME."
Buy, you know what? GNOME will win, even though they're usability-challenged. It has a nicer license. People will never develop business/desktop integration software on a GPLed toolkit. Not all of KDE is GPLed, however. Look how consfusing it is: http://developer.kde.org/documentation/licensing/l icensing.html

Where did KDE go wrong? Qt.

Kopete and Gaim are both working on voice support for Google Talk. Who's to say that Nokia aren't going to use one of these projects?

Not to pick on the parent poster, but for those interested...

gnopernicus
the GNOME Accessibility Project
britty (sorry, couldn't find a web site for it)
speechd-el for emacs users
the KDE Accessibility Project (to be ecumenical)
the Mozilla Accessibility Project

Found the first four on Ubuntu using synaptic and searching for "blind" and "gnopernicus" (OK, I remembered the name on that one); about a minute's worth of Googling turned up the URLs.

Now...that's not to say that those are perfect or meet everyone's needs; I wouldn't know, because I've never used them.

From TFA, it looks like the generic GIMP UI rant all over again; "[fill in blank] sucks, but I won't bother to tell you in particular what needs fixing." That's a great way to get the "code it yourself, then" response, but not particularly useful as far as getting what one wants.

"None of the prominent desktop applications that can create and save documents in OpenDocument currently work well with screen readers, magnifiers and other assistive technologies -- at least at a level comparable to that of products from Microsoft, whose 40-person Accessibility Technology Group is now widely praised by disabilities advocates"

I'm curious. I am not disabled but I've noticed many system wide accessibility features in linux in the various installs I've performed and a google of the web shows significant commitment and development to achieve accessibility in linux.

I'd like to hear some specifics on what is wrong with the current state of accessibility in linux and what is wrong with the current commitment.

The current argument is accessibility in ODF capable linux applications. Some of the accessibility projects are designed from the OS level up so I find it hard to believe there is no support in the applications when it is provided by the OS, so what is specifically wrong with what is there?

I also find it interesting that Windows accessibility required "kicking and screaming" to get 40 developers inside a multi-billion dollar corporation and yet the FOSS community appears to have a significant number of accessibility developers and the kicking and screaming just started. Is the whining justified or did Winske get an earful from the local MS rep?

http://larswiki.atrc.utoronto.ca/wiki/LinuxUnixAcc essibilitySoftware#OperatingSystemEnhancements

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap/

http://accessibility.kde.org/

Install KDE in Kiosk mode so if they fiddle about with it and stuff things up, just logging out and in again will restore the settings. As part of the install supply KPDF and Kate, Festival, Mbrola, and kttsd. Together these projects provide a very effective text to speech system which reads text pretty well to folks who are either dyslexic, or have tired eyes. KMail is not yet speech enabled, so you will have to use Konqueror and Gmail instead.

Install KDE in Kiosk mode so if they fiddle about with it and stuff things up, just logging out and in again will restore the settings. As part of the install supply KPDF and Kate, Festival, Mbrola, and kttsd. Together these projects provide a very effective text to speech system which reads text pretty well to folks who are either dyslexic, or have tired eyes. KMail is not yet speech enabled, so you will have to use Konqueror and Gmail instead.

The ODF format is limited to the features and performance of OpenOffice and StarOffice

Micro$soft is lying through their nose. They know very well that KOffice, the Free & Open Source office suite that comes with the KDE desktop environment also supports the ODF format. In fact, they were publically informed about KOffice's capabilities last year in a open letter sent by the KOffice developers.

Yet they continue to spread the outright lie that only OpenOffice and its derivatives support the Oasis Open Document Format (ODF).

KOffice has a much cleaner architecture and a leaner codebase than OpenOffice, making its startup faster and facilitating the addition of new features. Because improving KOffice to meet the usability needs of governments, businesses and disabled individuals can be done with much less effort, KOffice is an even greater threat to Micro$oft.

The ODF format is limited to the features and performance of OpenOffice and StarOffice

Micro$soft is lying through their nose. They know very well that KOffice, the Free & Open Source office suite that comes with the KDE desktop environment also supports the ODF format. In fact, they were publically informed about KOffice's capabilities last year in a open letter sent by the KOffice developers.

Yet they continue to spread the outright lie that only OpenOffice and its derivatives support the Oasis Open Document Format (ODF).

KOffice has a much cleaner architecture and a leaner codebase than OpenOffice, making its startup faster and facilitating the addition of new features. Because improving KOffice to meet the usability needs of governments, businesses and disabled individuals can be done with much less effort, KOffice is an even greater threat to Micro$oft.

KDE is broken in the latest Fedora release, which doesn't really surprise me given the fact that Red Hat has always had abyssmal support for KDE.

I think applications like Konqueror File Manager, K3B for burning CDs and DVDs, AmaroK for listening to music, Kaffeine for watching movies, etc are a must for a desktop computer. It's a shame that Red Hat doesn't put more resources into ensuring KDE is usable on their systems.

Anyway, I'll stick with ArkLinux, Kubuntu and openSUSE since KDE actually works on those distros.

KDE is broken in the latest Fedora release, which doesn't really surprise me given the fact that Red Hat has always had abyssmal support for KDE.

I think applications like Konqueror File Manager, K3B for burning CDs and DVDs, AmaroK for listening to music, Kaffeine for watching movies, etc are a must for a desktop computer. It's a shame that Red Hat doesn't put more resources into ensuring KDE is usable on their systems.

Anyway, I'll stick with ArkLinux, Kubuntu and openSUSE since KDE actually works on those distros.

I currently have 19000+ songs in my collection (thank-god for NFS) and Amarok easily manages the whole thing.
With the ability to connect to an MySQL DB (or it will use its own internal SQLlite if you don't have MySQL to connect to) it keeps track of ALL of you music information (including coverart and ID3Tags).

This is the best tool for music collections you will ever use.
Smart-Playlists
Score-based tracking of your music
full support for streaming.
"similar songs" suggestions
Music Brainz tagging support
and a metric ass-load of 3rd party scripts.

Version 1.4 is rock solid. I have converted several friends to using Linux strictly based on how powerfull Amarok is.

http://amarok.kde.org/
You won't ever need anything else.

amaroK

I've found winamp to be the most functional when it comes to managing large music libraries. Large meaning 20,000+ songs. I find Windows Media Player to have the nicest interface for managing, sorting, and creating playlists, however it becomes dog slow when your collection reaches five digits. iTunes is also laggy, so I do not use that anymore. Winamp is always responsive (the player doesn't lock up while searching the library), but uses the most memory. While the UI isn't the best, it is better than iTunes.

I wish amoroK could be ported to windows (maybe a summer project, we'll see). It uses either MySQL or PostgreSQL for very fast response, has a very intuitive interface (better than iTunes, IMHO), and very stable for an open source application. It ties in to Last.FM and provides similar features locally, making it hands down the best for managing large music collections. Downside, it's UNIX only.

Not saying anything is wrong with UNIX or Linux, but lets face it.. Windows and Mac OS X rule the desktop. Oh, and FWIW, iTunes on Mac OS X is *much* more responsive than iTunes on Windows with the same media library.

Let the flames commence

I've played with a number of various multimedia applications, and I always come back to mplayer. Personally, I use KMplayer when I want a GUI, since it has a few nice features that GMplayer doesn't (drag and drop playlist, maintains the correct aspect ratio of the file when resizing, nicer integration with KDE). I still occasionally use Ogle for DVDs, but I'm eagerly anticipating MPlayer supporting DVD menus.
For those of you who might have stuck with Xine based players and haven't played around much with MPlayer, there are a few reasons I really like it:
The largest reason is that it plays bloody everything. I've personally never come across a file that I couldn't open with MPlayer. The worst I've ever run into is in some files that are slightly corrupted I've had to use the -idx flag to reindex the file so that I can gracefully skip over bad sections of the file instead of the video just stopping playing. I find this particularly handy when I'm downloading television shows off bittorrent and the seeders all go away when I'm at like 90%.
Mplayer also seems more lightweight ot me than Xine. Most of the time, if I'm watching video at my computer, it's because I'm doing something that's taking long enough that I'm sitting at the desk waiting for it to finish (compiling a lot of software, doing 3D rendering, etc.) so it's nice to be able to dedicate more cycles to whatever real work is getting done while still being able to relax with a video.

Unfortunately, neither VLC nor MPlayer can be included as libraries in other multimedia applications. Having to work with an embedded instance of VLC and MPlayer is a pain and not conducive to extending functionality in object-oriented fashion.

Xine and its corresponding library Xine-lib, on the other hand, can be used as libraries inside other frontend applications such as Kaffeine and AmaroK. This allows the frontend apps to focus on what they do best: GUI, usability and eyecandy, while the multimedia-intensive parts can be neatly accessed through an API.

User-level software packaging is what will vary between distros, and not hardware drivers.

Do you claim that while packaging of applications differs, packaging of drivers is identical among GNU/Linux distros for PCs? If this is the case, how does one create a hardware driver package that 1. runs on all common GNU/Linux distros for PCs and 2. satisfies the hardware manufacturer's licensors who demand that the driver be proprietary software shipped as a binary? Google linux hardware driver packaging found me this KDE hardware mailing list post which details the difference between the Windows philosophy and the Linux philosophy and how the latter doesn't mesh well with the expectations of a residential end user.

Interesting - it looks like some sort of FSView-like program is running in the background. I wonder what...

I don't know much about GNOME, but most of KDE (including KOffice) is scriptable via DCOP. DCOP can be used via the command line, or in several languages (python, ruby, perl, java, perhaps more). For building a program (yes, with a nice shiny gui) quickly and effectivly, use Kommander.

i hold notepad in the highest regard as a text editor

ACK
Notepad is terrible!!! I mean:

• No syntax hilight
• No completion
• Size limitations
• No line/column numbers
• No code folding
• No incremental search
• And the worst: it has bugs!! Even simple as it is!!

Use emacs, gedit, kate, or even notepad+ for a while and you will never use notepad again!

Plan 9 offers a completely usable, modern desktop.

Plan 9 is a research operating system. I like Plan 9's architecture, file system, and many other ideas. Plan 9's goal is to further extend the notion of Unix's "everything is a file" idea. Everything, even the windowing system (rio), is a file. Plan 9 also vastly simplifies systems programming (compared to Unix). Plan 9 is a wonderful research operating system that I would love to tinker with and explore.

However, it isn't a desktop replacement for Windows/OS X users or even for Linux or BSD users. There is no office suites (or even a word processor unless you love text editors and TeX or troff), no browser on the scale of Firefox or Konqueror, no music/video players, nothing that 99% of the world uses with a computer. Besides, I'm pretty sure that users are more comfortable using this desktop, these desktops, or especially this desktop before they use this desktop. For even the most ardent *nix hackers or computer scientists, Plan 9 would be something they played with on the side (kind of like Minix or an operating system that they're working on), and Linux/BSD is their main OS.

I like Plan 9, but it isn't a desktop OS; it's a research OS. However, Plan 9 is a very innovative operating system; I wish that the major OS sellers (I'm talking to you, Apple and Microsoft) would be a bit more cutting-edge in the architecture of their OSes rather than just appearances (even though Apple has done very well since the bought NeXT; they have a hybrid kernel, for one). Plan 9, L4, the MIT exokernel project, and other projects look very interesting, and I would like to see them in use.

Intel is pushing a technology called Treacherous Computing, which will prevent unsigned code from running on their hardware. So even if you have the source code, if you try to remove the DRM restrictions, the hardware will refuse to run the modified binary.

The Free Software Foundation admits that the anti-DRM provisions in the GPLv3 will not be enough on their own to prevent the nightmare scenario where users can't trust their own computers.

People who understand the dangers of Digital Restrictions Management at a technical level (ie.Free and Open Source software developers) should warn the general public to avoid buying DRM-crippled hardware. Consumers should know about the great variety of DRM-free computers and accessories built specifically to work with Linux, the KDE desktop, and other Free and Open Source applications.

On the music side, there are plenty of websites that legally sell DRM-free, RIAA-free music by independent artists. Consumers can use an iTunes-like application called Songbird to easily download songs from these sites.

As for movies, building a Linux media center works better than the DRM-crippled offering from M$FT. Just download MythTV and run it on a computer equipped with the pcHDTV HD-3000 card and the PVR-350 card -- these will capture both standard definition (NTSC) and Digital/Hi-Definition (ATSC/HDTV) signals.

(Im the insulting guy, so we're clear. Just got back from class. Not sure, but I'm just gonna assume you're the guy I insulted. And you're just trying to preserve karma or whatever.)

First. I'm not apologizing for calling you a noob. I never apologize and you are one. In my mind a noob is someone who doesn't know wtf they're doing and is either too stupid or just not motivated enough to learn. Next.

"lives in their parents' basement"
Not since a year ago. (Yay!) Moved out a month after my 18th b-day.

"plays too much xbox live"
Video games are (IMO) a huge waste of my time. I try to devote most of my free time to study, thank you very much. ("The XBOX is too HUEG to fit in my apartment. It orbits a nearby star. LOLZ." -- some annonymous /b/tard)

"found some spare time to dick around with Linux"
I'm just intelligent and motivated. Instead of bitching about things not working, I ask "why not?" and attempt to fix it. The biggest block of spare time I've needed so far is two weekends to learn how to install Gentoo (back in high school when my weekends were always free), and occasionally an hour or two a week when I did upgrades and things broke. Not that hard. Although I did have some practice by growing up with Macs and then playing a bit with their UNIX when they switched.

"enough to boost your ego by talking down to people who don't know how to edit config files"
A config file is a plain text document. Much easier to edit than the Windows registry, IMO. Anyway, I haven't used Kscd, but seeing as it's a KDE app, there's probably a setting in the GUI to fix your problem.
Here's the handbook. (First freaking google hit.) http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/
Here's the section on configuration:
http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/configuring-kscd.html
And here's the section on configuring the CD player:
http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/kscd-options-tab.html

What you're probably looking for is to change the cdrom device "/dev/cdrom". You need to be sure it matches whatever is in your /etc/fstab file (the entry you want will have an iso fs).

What was the other problem? *checks* Okay DHCP. What's wrong with your dhcp? I'll try to help, if you'd like. In the mean time, I'm gonna go help the other guy and his 60sec-wait-if-theres-no-cable-in-the-nic annoyance.

Also explain by what you mean here: "Also could someone please explain why the networking bit of systemsettings doesn't seem to have anything to do with the actual operation of the network?" My guess is that you just don't know wtf you're talking about. Noob.

And this made me laugh: "I pity you, I really do." Reminds me of that Jehovah's Witness kid who used to live down the street from me. He always asked if he could pray for me becasue I always refused to go to his retarded church with him. I don't need your pity. And my ego is perfectly capable of surviving on its own without me having to communicate with noobs. In fact, I usually tell them to RTFM and then ignore them completly .

(Im the insulting guy, so we're clear. Just got back from class. Not sure, but I'm just gonna assume you're the guy I insulted. And you're just trying to preserve karma or whatever.)

First. I'm not apologizing for calling you a noob. I never apologize and you are one. In my mind a noob is someone who doesn't know wtf they're doing and is either too stupid or just not motivated enough to learn. Next.

"lives in their parents' basement"
Not since a year ago. (Yay!) Moved out a month after my 18th b-day.

"plays too much xbox live"
Video games are (IMO) a huge waste of my time. I try to devote most of my free time to study, thank you very much. ("The XBOX is too HUEG to fit in my apartment. It orbits a nearby star. LOLZ." -- some annonymous /b/tard)

"found some spare time to dick around with Linux"
I'm just intelligent and motivated. Instead of bitching about things not working, I ask "why not?" and attempt to fix it. The biggest block of spare time I've needed so far is two weekends to learn how to install Gentoo (back in high school when my weekends were always free), and occasionally an hour or two a week when I did upgrades and things broke. Not that hard. Although I did have some practice by growing up with Macs and then playing a bit with their UNIX when they switched.

"enough to boost your ego by talking down to people who don't know how to edit config files"
A config file is a plain text document. Much easier to edit than the Windows registry, IMO. Anyway, I haven't used Kscd, but seeing as it's a KDE app, there's probably a setting in the GUI to fix your problem.
Here's the handbook. (First freaking google hit.) http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/
Here's the section on configuration:
http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/configuring-kscd.html
And here's the section on configuring the CD player:
http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/kscd-options-tab.html

What you're probably looking for is to change the cdrom device "/dev/cdrom". You need to be sure it matches whatever is in your /etc/fstab file (the entry you want will have an iso fs).

What was the other problem? *checks* Okay DHCP. What's wrong with your dhcp? I'll try to help, if you'd like. In the mean time, I'm gonna go help the other guy and his 60sec-wait-if-theres-no-cable-in-the-nic annoyance.

Also explain by what you mean here: "Also could someone please explain why the networking bit of systemsettings doesn't seem to have anything to do with the actual operation of the network?" My guess is that you just don't know wtf you're talking about. Noob.

And this made me laugh: "I pity you, I really do." Reminds me of that Jehovah's Witness kid who used to live down the street from me. He always asked if he could pray for me becasue I always refused to go to his retarded church with him. I don't need your pity. And my ego is perfectly capable of surviving on its own without me having to communicate with noobs. In fact, I usually tell them to RTFM and then ignore them completly .

(Im the insulting guy, so we're clear. Just got back from class. Not sure, but I'm just gonna assume you're the guy I insulted. And you're just trying to preserve karma or whatever.)

First. I'm not apologizing for calling you a noob. I never apologize and you are one. In my mind a noob is someone who doesn't know wtf they're doing and is either too stupid or just not motivated enough to learn. Next.

"lives in their parents' basement"
Not since a year ago. (Yay!) Moved out a month after my 18th b-day.

"plays too much xbox live"
Video games are (IMO) a huge waste of my time. I try to devote most of my free time to study, thank you very much. ("The XBOX is too HUEG to fit in my apartment. It orbits a nearby star. LOLZ." -- some annonymous /b/tard)

"found some spare time to dick around with Linux"
I'm just intelligent and motivated. Instead of bitching about things not working, I ask "why not?" and attempt to fix it. The biggest block of spare time I've needed so far is two weekends to learn how to install Gentoo (back in high school when my weekends were always free), and occasionally an hour or two a week when I did upgrades and things broke. Not that hard. Although I did have some practice by growing up with Macs and then playing a bit with their UNIX when they switched.

"enough to boost your ego by talking down to people who don't know how to edit config files"
A config file is a plain text document. Much easier to edit than the Windows registry, IMO. Anyway, I haven't used Kscd, but seeing as it's a KDE app, there's probably a setting in the GUI to fix your problem.
Here's the handbook. (First freaking google hit.) http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/
Here's the section on configuration:
http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/configuring-kscd.html
And here's the section on configuring the CD player:
http://docs.kde.org/development/en/kdemultimedia/k scd/kscd-options-tab.html

What you're probably looking for is to change the cdrom device "/dev/cdrom". You need to be sure it matches whatever is in your /etc/fstab file (the entry you want will have an iso fs).

What was the other problem? *checks* Okay DHCP. What's wrong with your dhcp? I'll try to help, if you'd like. In the mean time, I'm gonna go help the other guy and his 60sec-wait-if-theres-no-cable-in-the-nic annoyance.

Also explain by what you mean here: "Also could someone please explain why the networking bit of systemsettings doesn't seem to have anything to do with the actual operation of the network?" My guess is that you just don't know wtf you're talking about. Noob.

And this made me laugh: "I pity you, I really do." Reminds me of that Jehovah's Witness kid who used to live down the street from me. He always asked if he could pray for me becasue I always refused to go to his retarded church with him. I don't need your pity. And my ego is perfectly capable of surviving on its own without me having to communicate with noobs. In fact, I usually tell them to RTFM and then ignore them completly .

I develop a few projects, most notably amaroK. And can attest to the truth in the f***ing summary.

The thing is, popular projects get a lot of questions thrown at them, we have 200 people in our irc channel at any time. We're usually very good at handling questions and being nice, but the constant barrage can get you down, especially when you've had the same question asked 50 times that day, and perhaps you had a bad day at work too.

You know how it can get.

I understand a user's frustration. They want to like your product, and your documentation is sub-standard, and your program buggy (it's open source after all), so you decide to ask a developer.

But this is the error! Try not to ask the developer. Every OSS project has a number of lurkers who know the devels and project well, but tend to not develop just hang around and help with misc. tasks, one of which is user-support.

Ask those guys, you'll generally get a much nicer response.

I know this is a probably obvious and cliched comment, but OSS is not commercial software, you can't exactly expect the same kind of responses to things like requests for support.

...can I really complain?

Well, the German Kubuntu team have closed their website in protest to what they claim is Canonical's disregard for KDE. Here are some of their concerns:

1) Canonical sponsors many more gnome developers than KDE developers -- just look how many more gnome-related commits appear in the Dapper commit log.
2) Edubuntu, whose education-specific programs come almost exclusively from the KDE Education Suite, runs on gnome instead of KDE. Canonical has never sponsored a KDE Education Suite developer, even though Edubuntu simply wouldn't exist without their work.
3) Canonical does not financially support the team that creates Kubuntu-LiveCDs, so they have to pay all the expenses from their own pockets.
4) Kubuntu doesn't accept community contributions (ie. contributions by anyone beside Jonathan Riddell and Andreas Mueller). A lot of volunteers wanted to contribute, but they can't because they have no access.
5) The name of the version featuring gnome is called Ubuntu, while the version featuring KDE has a K added to the front. This makes it sound like gnome is the default, standard, and KDE is some sort of offshoot. It would be more equitable to name them Ubuntu-KDE and Ubuntu-GNOME, or Kubuntu and Gubuntu.

Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu's main developer has tried to calm fears that Mark Shuttleworth is backing down on his commitment to KDE as a premier desktop system.

...can I really complain?

Well, the German Kubuntu team have closed their website in protest to what they claim is Canonical's disregard for KDE. Here are some of their concerns:

1) Canonical sponsors many more gnome developers than KDE developers -- just look how many more gnome-related commits appear in the Dapper commit log.
2) Edubuntu, whose education-specific programs come almost exclusively from the KDE Education Suite, runs on gnome instead of KDE. Canonical has never sponsored a KDE Education Suite developer, even though Edubuntu simply wouldn't exist without their work.
3) Canonical does not financially support the team that creates Kubuntu-LiveCDs, so they have to pay all the expenses from their own pockets.
4) Kubuntu doesn't accept community contributions (ie. contributions by anyone beside Jonathan Riddell and Andreas Mueller). A lot of volunteers wanted to contribute, but they can't because they have no access.
5) The name of the version featuring gnome is called Ubuntu, while the version featuring KDE has a K added to the front. This makes it sound like gnome is the default, standard, and KDE is some sort of offshoot. It would be more equitable to name them Ubuntu-KDE and Ubuntu-GNOME, or Kubuntu and Gubuntu.

Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu's main developer has tried to calm fears that Mark Shuttleworth is backing down on his commitment to KDE as a premier desktop system.

Give "Amorok" a try. I don't know if it's been ported to Windows, but IMHO it is the best media player out there. It has all the usual - links to iPod, supports automatic tagging (musicbrainz), cd burning, intelligent playlists, - plus it actively watches a directory for new music, finds other music you may like based on what you play (audioscrobbler) and has all sorts of advanced features. It is terrifically customizable, and has a reasonably light footprint considering it's options.

iTunes is very nice, but amarok is killer.

Too bad Krita is KDE only though, so no help for windows users looking for a good free photo editing suite.

There is always a solution. Let met think... Why not telling them to use KDE if you think their applications are good ?

Price are very low : between 0 and a few dizains of euros. Anyway, much less than what it is worth.

I suggest this because it's not the first time I read "Yeah, this KDE application is exactly what I need, too bad that I don't use KDE". Maybe the fact that more and more applications like Amarok, , Basket(still beta but try it and you will love it), K3B, Kate (vim and emacs will soon surrender ;-), KPhotoAlbum, Kontact... just to name a few are very enjoyable and perfectly integrated could be a hint that this move may be wise.

After all : Apple's business plan, which is not to urge to port ASAP every brand new shiny feature to windows, seems to work too. Wouldn't it make sense to try the same : giving Linux/KDE the success it deserves instead of a asking to add more 2nd grade freeware to the windows platform which doesn't really need it ?

Too bad Krita is KDE only though, so no help for windows users looking for a good free photo editing suite.

There is always a solution. Let met think... Why not telling them to use KDE if you think their applications are good ?

Price are very low : between 0 and a few dizains of euros. Anyway, much less than what it is worth.

I suggest this because it's not the first time I read "Yeah, this KDE application is exactly what I need, too bad that I don't use KDE". Maybe the fact that more and more applications like Amarok, , Basket(still beta but try it and you will love it), K3B, Kate (vim and emacs will soon surrender ;-), KPhotoAlbum, Kontact... just to name a few are very enjoyable and perfectly integrated could be a hint that this move may be wise.

After all : Apple's business plan, which is not to urge to port ASAP every brand new shiny feature to windows, seems to work too. Wouldn't it make sense to try the same : giving Linux/KDE the success it deserves instead of a asking to add more 2nd grade freeware to the windows platform which doesn't really need it ?

Too bad Krita is KDE only though, so no help for windows users looking for a good free photo editing suite.

There is always a solution. Let met think... Why not telling them to use KDE if you think their applications are good ?

Price are very low : between 0 and a few dizains of euros. Anyway, much less than what it is worth.

I suggest this because it's not the first time I read "Yeah, this KDE application is exactly what I need, too bad that I don't use KDE". Maybe the fact that more and more applications like Amarok, , Basket(still beta but try it and you will love it), K3B, Kate (vim and emacs will soon surrender ;-), KPhotoAlbum, Kontact... just to name a few are very enjoyable and perfectly integrated could be a hint that this move may be wise.

After all : Apple's business plan, which is not to urge to port ASAP every brand new shiny feature to windows, seems to work too. Wouldn't it make sense to try the same : giving Linux/KDE the success it deserves instead of a asking to add more 2nd grade freeware to the windows platform which doesn't really need it ?

Too bad Krita is KDE only though, so no help for windows users looking for a good free photo editing suite.

There is always a solution. Let met think... Why not telling them to use KDE if you think their applications are good ?

Price are very low : between 0 and a few dizains of euros. Anyway, much less than what it is worth.

I suggest this because it's not the first time I read "Yeah, this KDE application is exactly what I need, too bad that I don't use KDE". Maybe the fact that more and more applications like Amarok, , Basket(still beta but try it and you will love it), K3B, Kate (vim and emacs will soon surrender ;-), KPhotoAlbum, Kontact... just to name a few are very enjoyable and perfectly integrated could be a hint that this move may be wise.

After all : Apple's business plan, which is not to urge to port ASAP every brand new shiny feature to windows, seems to work too. Wouldn't it make sense to try the same : giving Linux/KDE the success it deserves instead of a asking to add more 2nd grade freeware to the windows platform which doesn't really need it ?

Too bad Krita is KDE only though, so no help for windows users looking for a good free photo editing suite.

There is always a solution. Let met think... Why not telling them to use KDE if you think their applications are good ?

Price are very low : between 0 and a few dizains of euros. Anyway, much less than what it is worth.

I suggest this because it's not the first time I read "Yeah, this KDE application is exactly what I need, too bad that I don't use KDE". Maybe the fact that more and more applications like Amarok, , Basket(still beta but try it and you will love it), K3B, Kate (vim and emacs will soon surrender ;-), KPhotoAlbum, Kontact... just to name a few are very enjoyable and perfectly integrated could be a hint that this move may be wise.

After all : Apple's business plan, which is not to urge to port ASAP every brand new shiny feature to windows, seems to work too. Wouldn't it make sense to try the same : giving Linux/KDE the success it deserves instead of a asking to add more 2nd grade freeware to the windows platform which doesn't really need it ?

KDE is the leader when it comes to supporting the popular Indic languages like Urdu, Tamil, Hindi, and Bengali.

If you could link to some statistics it might be interesting to see.

According to Gnome's website.

Gnome v2.14

Hindi: 94.10% complete.
Tamil: 66.64% complete.
Benglai: 80.33% complete.

According to the KDE's website:

Kde stable:

Hindi: 57.06% complete.
Tamil: 66.13% complete.
Bengali: 23.93% complete.

I've never seen such blatant imitation as KDE's Control Center is of OS X's System Preferences. I actually laughed out loud the first time I saw it.

Just curious.. what are you talking about?

KDE control center screen shot

Apple System Preferences

As far as linux "catching up" .. all depends on what you want to do with the system. It is a tool like any other system.

http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=Performanc e%20Tips

Even better, follow the link. It turns out that ALL the main browser people, MS, Mozilla, Opera and KDE got together and agreeded on colours and padlock information and layout for the address bars. It won't just be MS colouring the bar in IE7, everyone will, and in a common, standard way.

So if every browser is going to do it, in the same way, then how come only MS is being dismissed here?

Here is the URL,
http://lists.kde.org/?t=114207413900001&r=1&w=2

Think Konq vs Mozilla
KDE vs. Gnome
PerlPHPPython vs. Mono C#
sqlite vs. MySQL

Or Knotes (or the Gnome equivalent)