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I haven't used SQLite, can anyone with experience using it please comment?

I use amaroK, which uses sqlite for storing its stuff, and for all I care it behaves just like a normal desktop app to me. I guess adding the thing to Firefox won't make it any worse either.

This was my thought too. However, I seem to recall that Konqueror is little more than a frontend for KIO slaves. Could be wrong though, so I guess we need some one knowledgeable to respond or head to the repository. :)

How about amaroK? I know it's KDE-based, but it's been ported to OS X, and will probably port to Qt/Win (once amaroK 2 comes out, based on KDE/Qt 4). (BTW I know it's a DIY job at the moment, but give it time...)

who cares? the screenshots you provided only show one thing: gnome still sucks farts out of my ass! gnome is ugly, nonfunctional, buggy, and non-intuitive. get a real desktop!

Come on, what a blatant and yet crappy rip-off. Try something innovative, like amaroK.

amaroK is a million times better anyway. I just bought a new Macbook Pro and I wish there was an easy way to get it working on OS X, because it's way better than iTunes.

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 a cross-platform, iTunes-like application called Songbird to easily download songs from these sites.

As for movies, building a Linux media center works just as well as 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.

...blinded with rage and flinging FUD around like mad dancing monkeys.

Heh, funny that you mentioned monkeys flinging FUD. It is the Ximian primates (yes, they call themselves that) who are spreading FUD against KDE and paying Google to display GNOME sites when people are searching for KDE applications.

Nevermind the fact that other desktops are using gstreamer, it's GNOME's (got it?) multimedia backend.

Care to name which? KDE is building a backend-independent multimedia framework called Phonon which will be ready by the release of KDE4. This framework will allow KDE-based multimedia apps:

Kaffeine
AmaroK
KMPlayer

to work well with backends such as Xine, which are GPLed and which have copyleft protection against DRM. GNOME, on the other hand, is stuck with DRM-crippled GStreamer.

...blinded with rage and flinging FUD around like mad dancing monkeys.

Heh, funny that you mentioned monkeys flinging FUD. It is the Ximian primates (yes, they call themselves that) who are spreading FUD against KDE and paying Google to display GNOME sites when people are searching for KDE applications.

Nevermind the fact that other desktops are using gstreamer, it's GNOME's (got it?) multimedia backend.

Care to name which? KDE is building a backend-independent multimedia framework called Phonon which will be ready by the release of KDE4. This framework will allow KDE-based multimedia apps:

Kaffeine
AmaroK
KMPlayer

to work well with backends such as Xine, which are GPLed and which have copyleft protection against DRM. GNOME, on the other hand, is stuck with DRM-crippled GStreamer.

...blinded with rage and flinging FUD around like mad dancing monkeys.

Heh, funny that you mentioned monkeys flinging FUD. It is the Ximian primates (yes, they call themselves that) who are spreading FUD against KDE and paying Google to display GNOME sites when people are searching for KDE applications.

Nevermind the fact that other desktops are using gstreamer, it's GNOME's (got it?) multimedia backend.

Care to name which? KDE is building a backend-independent multimedia framework called Phonon which will be ready by the release of KDE4. This framework will allow KDE-based multimedia apps:

Kaffeine
AmaroK
KMPlayer

to work well with backends such as Xine, which are GPLed and which have copyleft protection against DRM. GNOME, on the other hand, is stuck with DRM-crippled GStreamer.

Ever since a company called Fluendo joined the GNOME Foundation's Advisory Board, GNOME is obligated to use GStreamer (a software product sponsored by Fluendo) as its audio and video backend. This wouldn't be bad, if it weren't for the fact that GStreamer uses Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to handcuff users and leave them at the mercy of the entertainment cartel. In order to do this, GStreamer is denying its developers the right to license their constribution under the GPL, so that Fluendo can sell closed-source, proprietary DRM plugins that let the MPAA and RIAA control the users' viewing habits.

GStreamer has hurt the multimedia effort on Linux and the Free Desktop because they stole talented developers from mature mutimedia projects such as Xine, MPlayer, and VideoLAN, all of which were started before GStreamer and all of which have strong copyleft protection by being licensed under the GPL. In other words, GStreamer further fragmented the Linux multimedia developer base purely for the selfish, immoral purpose of ramming DRM down Linux users' throats.

Ximian, a company instrumental in founding GNOME, sold out to big business in 2002 by switching Mono's license from the GPL to the weaker MIT X11 license. Instead of helping out the myriad of established multimedia apps such as Kaffeine, AmaroK, and KMPlayer, Ximian started a whole new app called Banshee, whose only claim to fame is that its license (MIT X11) allows linking to proprietary DRM plugins.

These are just some example of an increasing problem GNOME is experiencing: it is pandering (and in some cases outright selling out) to companies that don't necessarily have the users' best interest in mind. One can say that the whole reason GNOME was started was to allow proprietary software (including draconian DRM) to use the hard work of open source developers.

KDE, on the other hand, is licensed solely under the GPL because the toolkit it is based on (Qt) is also GPL. KDE is also committed to preventing DRM from infesting their user's computers: for KDE4, they are building a multimedia framework called Phonon that does not depend on GStreamer, but which can use any number of backends, including DRM-free ones.

Ever since a company called Fluendo joined the GNOME Foundation's Advisory Board, GNOME is obligated to use GStreamer (a software product sponsored by Fluendo) as its audio and video backend. This wouldn't be bad, if it weren't for the fact that GStreamer uses Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to handcuff users and leave them at the mercy of the entertainment cartel. In order to do this, GStreamer is denying its developers the right to license their constribution under the GPL, so that Fluendo can sell closed-source, proprietary DRM plugins that let the MPAA and RIAA control the users' viewing habits.

GStreamer has hurt the multimedia effort on Linux and the Free Desktop because they stole talented developers from mature mutimedia projects such as Xine, MPlayer, and VideoLAN, all of which were started before GStreamer and all of which have strong copyleft protection by being licensed under the GPL. In other words, GStreamer further fragmented the Linux multimedia developer base purely for the selfish, immoral purpose of ramming DRM down Linux users' throats.

Ximian, a company instrumental in founding GNOME, sold out to big business in 2002 by switching Mono's license from the GPL to the weaker MIT X11 license. Instead of helping out the myriad of established multimedia apps such as Kaffeine, AmaroK, and KMPlayer, Ximian started a whole new app called Banshee, whose only claim to fame is that its license (MIT X11) allows linking to proprietary DRM plugins.

These are just some example of an increasing problem GNOME is experiencing: it is pandering (and in some cases outright selling out) to companies that don't necessarily have the users' best interest in mind. One can say that the whole reason GNOME was started was to allow proprietary software (including draconian DRM) to use the hard work of open source developers.

KDE, on the other hand, is licensed solely under the GPL because the toolkit it is based on (Qt) is also GPL. KDE is also committed to preventing DRM from infesting their user's computers: for KDE4, they are building a multimedia framework called Phonon that does not depend on GStreamer, but which can use any number of backends, including DRM-free ones.

Ever since a company called Fluendo joined the GNOME Foundation's Advisory Board, GNOME is obligated to use GStreamer (a software product sponsored by Fluendo) as its audio and video backend. This wouldn't be bad, if it weren't for the fact that GStreamer uses Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to handcuff users and leave them at the mercy of the entertainment cartel. In order to do this, GStreamer is denying its developers the right to license their constribution under the GPL, so that Fluendo can sell closed-source, proprietary DRM plugins that let the MPAA and RIAA control the users' viewing habits.

GStreamer has hurt the multimedia effort on Linux and the Free Desktop because they stole talented developers from mature mutimedia projects such as Xine, MPlayer, and VideoLAN, all of which were started before GStreamer and all of which have strong copyleft protection by being licensed under the GPL. In other words, GStreamer further fragmented the Linux multimedia developer base purely for the selfish, immoral purpose of ramming DRM down Linux users' throats.

Ximian, a company instrumental in founding GNOME, sold out to big business in 2002 by switching Mono's license from the GPL to the weaker MIT X11 license. Instead of helping out the myriad of established multimedia apps such as Kaffeine, AmaroK, and KMPlayer, Ximian started a whole new app called Banshee, whose only claim to fame is that its license (MIT X11) allows linking to proprietary DRM plugins.

These are just some example of an increasing problem GNOME is experiencing: it is pandering (and in some cases outright selling out) to companies that don't necessarily have the users' best interest in mind. One can say that the whole reason GNOME was started was to allow proprietary software (including draconian DRM) to use the hard work of open source developers.

KDE, on the other hand, is licensed solely under the GPL because the toolkit it is based on (Qt) is also GPL. KDE is also committed to preventing DRM from infesting their user's computers: for KDE4, they are building a multimedia framework called Phonon that does not depend on GStreamer, but which can use any number of backends, including DRM-free ones.

Konqueror also claims to be the second browser to have achieved compliance.... http://www.kde.org/announcements/visualguide-3.5.p hp Does it really matter? Does anybody really care? When will firefox be compliant? What about MS Exploder?

try uTorrent (micro-torrent), and make sure you enable encryption.

uTorrent is Windows-only and proprietary. The parent referred to a Gentoo install CD. Most likely he's on a Linux box, and since it's Gentoo you need the source code.

For torrent encryption, the only option on Linux is Azureus. Although, KTorrent is also in the process of implementing encryption.

Which still has nothing to do with the original point.

...Length of time of Debian's existence and larger user base are one of the things that make your Google comparison dubious...

As pointed out in my post, to which you have just replied, there are distributions that have been around for less time than Gentoo with more requests for help, and the user base works to the larger distributions advantage. If a question has been asked already the answer is (hopefully) there.

...There are other things for other distros, for example the different users that Ubuntu attracts...

Ah, still twisting and turning.

You have to read between the lines. no you wont get exact figures here, but if one distribution was so much worse than the others it would show somewhere. But it doesn't.

...I used the Internet to establish that there existed people that had a problem with the reliability of Gentoo, not establish numbers...

But you would have if you could. I can establish there exists people that have a problem with the reliability of any distribution you care to name. 2003 seems to be a year you favour so try this. I bet this person ranted on and on how this was by far the worst distribution he had ever used. It's probably the policies, nothing wrong with apt. Something more up to date? Here you are. And of course Debian never causes people problems.

So what does this prove? Only that no distribution is immune to problems, not that they are significantly worse than any other. Numbers would do that. Surely with such an awful distribution there is a plethora of sites for you to choose from, like this one. Oh, hang on, they quite like it.

The Education Suite of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) has made great strides in providing high-quality educational software for schoolchildren aged 3 to 18. The educational applications range from ones that teach vocabulary and foreign languages to math, physics, chemistry, astronomy and computer programming.

This goes to show that the educational sector is considered a high priority by many KDE developers, which is good because contracts with educational institutions account for a great percentage of software revenue. And of course, they have the satisfaction of making the kids (and consequently our future society) smarter, better informed, and more ready to tackle the challenges they'll face.

The Education Suite of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) has made great strides in providing high-quality educational software for schoolchildren aged 3 to 18. The educational applications range from ones that teach vocabulary and foreign languages to math, physics, chemistry, astronomy and computer programming.

This goes to show that the educational sector is considered a high priority by many KDE developers, which is good because contracts with educational institutions account for a great percentage of software revenue. And of course, they have the satisfaction of making the kids (and consequently our future society) smarter, better informed, and more ready to tackle the challenges they'll face.

http://l10n-status.gnome.org/ [gnome.org]
http://l10n-status.gnome.org/HEAD/index.html
[gnome.org] Translation stats for Gnome/Gtk+.

http://i18n.kde.org/stats.php [kde.org]
http://i18n.kde.org/stats/gui/stable/index.php
[kde.org] Translation stats for KDE.

http://l10n-status.gnome.org/ [gnome.org]
http://l10n-status.gnome.org/HEAD/index.html
[gnome.org] Translation stats for Gnome/Gtk+.

http://i18n.kde.org/stats.php [kde.org]
http://i18n.kde.org/stats/gui/stable/index.php
[kde.org] Translation stats for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

The K Desktop Environment (KDE) has an education suite focused on creating high-quality educational software for children ages 3 to 18. They've also developed specialized programs to aid teachers in planning lessons. Here are some of the specific programs and their targetted are of teaching:

KLatin, KVerbos, and Kiten to teach Latin, Spanish, and Japanese respectively.

KMPlot to plot mathematical functions and Kig to explore geometric constructions.

Kalzium to teach Chemistry KStars to teach astronomy.

KGeograhy to teach gegraphy KTouch to teach typing.

I would encourage you to install Kubuntu or SUSE instead, since these distros have good support for KDE.

You know, it can download TV shows, runs on OSX?!

Now this: "Seriously, who cares about these "my penis [Linux software] is bigger than your penis" posts? Who gives a shit? iTunes is virtually the only music player software I've found that doesn't look like crap and has enough features to keep me happy. If you like Amarok better, fine! But don't make it sound like I'm some kind of idiot for liking iTunes." Ohboy.

You took me so wrong: I was being serious, not sarcastic, and I apologize if I made you feel like a fool for iTunes. I read a lot about iTunes, but I don't have access to it: none of my closest friends use it (not even the iPod owners), iTMS does not work in Brasil AFAIK. And, from the screenshots, I could only define iTunes as a "crippled amaroK that can play Fair". I am of the opinion that iTunes and amaroK look remarkably similar (compare the screenshots pointed to, and take in consideration that the amaroK screenshot is in the "full glory" mode -- it can me far more discreet [and is by default]) and that my (Free, not linux) personal choice of software is quite good.

Now, I asked, and noone answered: what's so special about iTunes? it's a fair and honest question -- and I doubt the answer would take me away from amaroK anyway (you know, KDE machines and stuff).

OGG typically takes 2/3 of the space a comparable mp3 does and is free of licensing and patent problems. If you want compressed music you want OGG.

As for media player integration, I see things the other way. Most available devices don't integrate well with my choice of free media player. There are many that are harder to get that I'd like.

The Z5 is not one of them, despite ogg support. As an AC pointed out, it uses MTP, a crappy M$ transfer protocol, which is still a pain in the ass.

Works for Sure is starting to mean just the opposite for me. If you want to see a real flop, look at the New Napster and others trying to make a buck for Bill. There you will find billions of dollars worth of hints. People don't want DRM, they want stuff that works. WMP has a well deserved horrible reputation.

In the mean time, I'm stuck converting ogg to mp3 or keeping everything in both formats for my cheap portable music device. That's not too big a deal and I can wait.

this "iTunes" I keep reading about? Is it some sort of amaroK-like digital audio player, that can play virtually every digital audio format, shuffle my music collection in a variety of ways, show me the album covers, lyrics and info about the band, beyond playing podcasts?

Hark! I hear the sound of somebody who hasn't use Linux in years.

Support for most printers is there out of the box. Both my HP Laser and my Epson Printer/Scanner were supported out of the box on the current and previous versions of Ubuntu. That's printing *and* scanning.

Again, on the latest version of Ubuntu, there's an option in the main menu, under Graphics, called gtkam which you might notice because it has a little picture of a digital camera next to it. Click it and you can interface with most digital cameras. No driver installation necessary. Alternatively, just plug your memory card into your card reader and an icon for the card will appear on your desktop. I'm having a hard time imagining how they could make it any simpler.

Several of the Linux audio players have in-built support for the iPod. The default media player for Kubuntu, amaroK, does, as does the default media player for Ubuntu, Rhythmbox.

OK, this one is supported but you're going to have to install an application to deal with it. Luckily, Ubuntu comes with a graphical utility to install programmes. All you have to do is tell it to install Kino and you're sorted.

So please, when you're going to diss Linux, at least have the decency to try it first.

Supporting the Summer of Code would enable Google to positively impact education in numerous ways. Educating the younger generation is an investment in the world's future, yet it so often seems to fall off the radar of those in charge.

How can Google support education with Free and Open Source Software? By improving apps that make it fun for elementary, junior high and high school students to learn. And how do you make it fun? By intertwining technology and using computers to their full potential as teaching tools. Take the KDE Education Suite for example: it has open source programs that teach Math, Chemistry, Physics, Foreign Languages and many more. Wouldn't it be nice if every third-world child had access to these?

By supporting college students who work on Free Software, Google would be raising awareness of its many advantages, not to mention giving participants the satisfaction that they've authored something that will be used by millions of people throughout the world. The Free Software foundation has compiled a list of testimonials from people at various educational institutions who have benefited greatly from using Free Software. But more importantly, using Free Software in educational settings teaches students about freedom and cooperation. Richard Stallman and FSF Europe have written great essays on this topic, titled:

Why schools should use exclusively free software
Why give precedence to Free Software at school?

Through Free and Open Source software, Google has the power to make the world a smarter place, enabling its people to make intelligent decisions that will affect all of us.

$ find /etc/|grep gnome|wc
    158 158 10424

I'd love to see Google continue and expand its Summer of Code program, which last summer funded 400 students worldwide to work on the Free and Open Source projects of their choice. Each student was rewarded $4,500 and the project they were improving received $500 to cover the mentors' time and expenses.

By enabling students to contribute to Free Software at an early age, Google would not only be doing society a favor, but it would also introduce those students to the concept of working with a large group of talented, motivated contributors coming from vastly different backgrounds.

If it only offered "Yes" and "No", what would you click when you didn't want to exit at all?

The button in my mail reader that sends a message - in particular, a message to the "report a bug/deficiency here" address for the application in question - or the button in my mail browser to submit such a bug; if it only offered "Yes" and "No", that'd be a deficiency.

"Yes", "No", and "Cancel" might be an improvement, but the human interface guidelines for the desktop I referred to suggest that "Button names should correspond to the action the user performs when pressing the button--for example, Erase, Save, or Delete", so "Don't Save", "Cancel", and "Save" are even more of an improvement.

The GNOME Human Interface Guidelines make a similar suggestion:

Write button labels as imperative verbs, for example Save, Print. This allows users to select an action with less hesitation. An active phrase also fits best with the button's role in initiating actions, as contrasted with a more passive phrase. For example Find and Log In are better buttons than than Yes and OK.

so "Yes" and "No" aren't the labels that should be used in most GNOME alert boxes. I'd say they aren't the labels that should be used in most alert boxes in any GUI; the KDE User Interface Guidelines make that suggestion:

Although Yes-No questions have an appealing simplicity, they do have a downside. While the implications of the Yes answer are usually very clear, the implications of the No answer are often not clear at all. The question "Do you want to save your changes?" serves as a good example. Pressing "Yes" will get the changes saved, but what happens when the user presses the "No" button? Rephrasing the question as an Either-Or question will help make this more clear: "Do you want to save or discard your changes?". Now there can be buttons labeled "Save" and "Discard", and the consequences of both are equally clear.

One could debate which of the Macintosh/GNOME convention of "affirmative button on the right" and the Windows convention of "OK as the default button and default button on the left" is better (and perhaps the Windows convention is "better" by virtue of being the one familiar to more people), but neither of them are something done by "NO ONE ELSE ON THE PLANET".

If it only offered "Yes" and "No", what would you click when you didn't want to exit at all?

The button in my mail reader that sends a message - in particular, a message to the "report a bug/deficiency here" address for the application in question - or the button in my mail browser to submit such a bug; if it only offered "Yes" and "No", that'd be a deficiency.

"Yes", "No", and "Cancel" might be an improvement, but the human interface guidelines for the desktop I referred to suggest that "Button names should correspond to the action the user performs when pressing the button--for example, Erase, Save, or Delete", so "Don't Save", "Cancel", and "Save" are even more of an improvement.

The GNOME Human Interface Guidelines make a similar suggestion:

Write button labels as imperative verbs, for example Save, Print. This allows users to select an action with less hesitation. An active phrase also fits best with the button's role in initiating actions, as contrasted with a more passive phrase. For example Find and Log In are better buttons than than Yes and OK.

so "Yes" and "No" aren't the labels that should be used in most GNOME alert boxes. I'd say they aren't the labels that should be used in most alert boxes in any GUI; the KDE User Interface Guidelines make that suggestion:

Although Yes-No questions have an appealing simplicity, they do have a downside. While the implications of the Yes answer are usually very clear, the implications of the No answer are often not clear at all. The question "Do you want to save your changes?" serves as a good example. Pressing "Yes" will get the changes saved, but what happens when the user presses the "No" button? Rephrasing the question as an Either-Or question will help make this more clear: "Do you want to save or discard your changes?". Now there can be buttons labeled "Save" and "Discard", and the consequences of both are equally clear.

One could debate which of the Macintosh/GNOME convention of "affirmative button on the right" and the Windows convention of "OK as the default button and default button on the left" is better (and perhaps the Windows convention is "better" by virtue of being the one familiar to more people), but neither of them are something done by "NO ONE ELSE ON THE PLANET".

Gstreamer is GPL

Wrong, GStreamer is LGPL only. The GStreamer website is adamant about denying developers the right to license contributed code under the GPL:
We require that all code going into our core package is LGPL. For the plugin code, we require the use of the LGPL for all plugins written from scratch or linking to external libraries.

Fluendo, the company that controls GStreamer, wants to link their DRM plugins to LGPL code contributed by the naive independent developers, who don't realize that by writing LGPL multimedia code, they might as well be working for the RIAA and MPAA.

Xine on the other hand is GPL, and any code that links to Xine must also be GPL. So even if someone decides to make DRM plugins or apps for Xine, they will have to give users the source code to those plugins. There will inevitably be some users who know how to extract the useful part of the codec while leaving out the DRM restrictions. As the KDE developer Aaron Seigo eloquently put it:
DRM + source code = no DRM

Now I realize why Richard Stallman warned against using LGPL for any code, including libraries. Too bad the makes of GTK and GNOME didn't listen. But thank God the makers of Qt and KDE did!

GStreamer, the official audio backend for GNOME, will include DRM plugins developed by a company called Fluendo, which hopes to make money by restricting the users' rights and turning GNOME/Linux/"the Free Desktop System" into a Vista-like nightmare controlled by the entertainment cartel. Why? Because Fluendo is on the GNOME Foundation's Advisory Board. I can't believe I've been so stupid to actually give them money, so that they can turn around and stab Free Software in the back! Never again will I trust the GNOME Foundation after they sold out the community like this.

I hope KDE is smart enough to avoid DRM by choosing a multimedia backend that is GPL. This will ensure that users can change the code of any plugin, remove the DRM, and be left with a functional product. Xine would be an excellent choice for a multimedia backend, since it is light-weight, works with more codecs that Gstreamer (not to mention better) and can be included as a library in any program, like Kaffeine and Amarok have already done.

GStreamer, the official audio backend for GNOME, will include DRM plugins developed by a company called Fluendo, which hopes to make money by restricting the users' rights and turning GNOME/Linux/"the Free Desktop System" into a Vista-like nightmare controlled by the entertainment cartel. Why? Because Fluendo is on the GNOME Foundation's Advisory Board. I can't believe I've been so stupid to actually give them money, so that they can turn around and stab Free Software in the back! Never again will I trust the GNOME Foundation after they sold out the community like this.

I hope KDE is smart enough to avoid DRM by choosing a multimedia backend that is GPL. This will ensure that users can change the code of any plugin, remove the DRM, and be left with a functional product. Xine would be an excellent choice for a multimedia backend, since it is light-weight, works with more codecs that Gstreamer (not to mention better) and can be included as a library in any program, like Kaffeine and Amarok have already done.

I take it you are dead happy to see basically zero progress in software from now on.
What a twat.

Are you even listening?

The claim is not that creation is not necessary, but that the incentive to create is not necessary.

In other words, creation will continue to exist long after copyright. Can you get that through your head or will you continue to argue against a strawman?

Ofcourse we all know that without copyright, there would be no software at all.

Whatever happens, we should all try our best to support MySQL in what may be a losing battle against an evil foe.

When they put their money where there mouth is, like trolltech did a long time ago, I'll start supporting them.

Having used both itunes (on windows) and amarok, I think the latter is more than a good replacement for the former. It interacts seamlessly with my ipod, does great music recommendations using last.fm whilst you're listening (so you always have an automatic DJ with your taste in music), and is continually being developed and improved (a new version came out last week).

If you could make a program which replicated everything that iTunes does, without the iTMS or DRM functions, I think you'd do what 90% of people want.

I've always held that possession of a stencil does not make one a calligrapher, and I like to produce HTML in a text editor with syntax highlighting. My current favourite is kate. Dreamweaver produces bad HTML*, but it can't be expected to produce much else. It's a brave attempt to solve what is really an impossible problem. You really can't have a WYSIWYG {what you see is what you get} editor for a medium which is by definition WYSINNWEEG {what you see is not necessarily what everyone else gets}.

The best analogy I can come up with is a device with piano-like keys that clips onto the neck of a guitar, and frets and strums the strings in response to your key presses.

* I consider anything with <font> tags in it to be bad HTML.

Mark Shuttleworth is subsidizing the Kubuntu team is working on a software installer named Adept. I find this to be rather wasteful, since there is already an extremely feature-rich, robust and mature installer from SUSE named YAST. YAST is Free and Open Source (GPL) and it is built on the Qt/KDE framework and integrated in the KDE Control Center, so it would fit very nicely in the Kubuntu environment.

YaST is the app that makes the proverbial "Linux on the Desktop" a reality. It is the most robust, comprehensive and user-friendly configuration tool for GNU/Linux -- software management, hardware detection, system administration and much more. In short, it is everything the average newbie from W$ needs to set up and update his computer without having to touch the command line.

Devising a new GUI app for installing packages is reinventing the wheel by duplicating the gigantic functionality of YAST. This project will only yield a half-baked solution that will get abandoned as soon as it starts tackling the more thorny issues that YAST has already solved.

The YAST code is clean, and has already been used by Linux distros like Yoper, so it is definitely feasible to get it running under Debian/Kubuntu if their devs don't start reinventing the wheel. YAST might be complex, but then any program that excels at setting up and updating a Desktop Linux system is going to become complex no matter what.

where are all the kick ass media players for KDE that need aRTS?

amaroK. Try it, it is awesome. I personally cannot stand using Arts. The good thing is that amaroK has different output plugins, including Helix, GStreamer, and Xine (the best, IMHO).