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1. You assert that it'd good, I assert that it's crap. I'm not used to it and it seems to serve no real purpose - just a rather inferior alternative to minimizing.

I hear the same thing about tabs in Mozilla/Firefox vs. opening up a new browser window in IE.

1. I guess the most significant problem with X has to be the lack of programs that I'm used to.

Yep. It's like drinking Pepsi or Coke all the time and being introduced to Dr. Pepper or lime Coke. It just seems *wrong*, doesn't it?

1. Name something as good as the MSVC++ GDE.

Haven't used it.

1. And file associations are wacky in Linux. Seemingly random association/non-association with programs. I remember using it, and I had 3 files of the same extension; two were associated with a text editor, the other wasn't, and the file browser just said it didn't have any application to open it with, and didn't provide me with any way to specify one!

It's goofy under Windows too. You just don't notice it now! (The only OS that I've used that got it right was OS/2's WorkPlace Shell. No, I don't want to go back to that; OS/2 had other problems though the WPS was sweet.)

1. Windows Explorer might not be perfect, but it's the best file manager I've ever used.

It's clumsy to me. It hides too much even when you tell it not to and has strange arbitrary limits. There is no direct link between what you do on the command line and what you do in the file manager. (Example: Try and copy a file using Explorer from a network resource. Now, do the same thing from CMD.)

The Konqueror and Nautilus shells need some improvements, for sure. Many of the failures in Explorer also appear in them as well. At it's base, though, if you mount a network resouce under Unix/Linux/... it shows up locally. These links can be placed in arbitrary locations instead of fictional "I:, J:, X: ..." lettered resouces. Microsoft is moving away from letters because of the substantial drawbacks but the tools to handle links (soft and hard not 'shortcuts') are very crude and not at all integrated with the GUI.

My biggest gripe with both Windows and KDE/Gnome as desktops is that they are both very inconsistant, though KDE/Gnome are less so. What I mean by that is that for Windows *AND* KDE/Gnome there isn't a complete 1:1 map between what you see and where things are in all programs.

KDE does handle network transparency very well, though, and includes plugins for a variety of network protocols, compressed files, and specific data types (such as audio CDs). For example: You can drop in an audio cd and browse to the MP3 directory on the CD...drag off a file...and the MP3 will be created on the fly. The 'view' of the MP3 directory is entirely virtual and does not really exist. The MP3 is only created when you drag and drop or otherwise access the file from the MP3 directory.

Where it fails by default is that you can't write a shell script that loads an audio CD, copies the MP3s, and ejects the CD -- because at the shell prompt there's nothing to see! You can use DCOP (an enhanced version of what Windows offers in COM).

The good thing is that there are tools being developed that will push this virtual interface back down to the OS level. That way, every tool sees the same results.

That said, Explorer doesn't match up to Konqueror very well. Here are 2 examples on how Konqueror is damn nice;

Managing web sites

View profiles

You can do some of this under Windows, though it usually requires finding extra plugins, installing them, or using a one-off application to 'manage' things like your camera (using whatever protocol the camera can understand).

Both KDE objects are fully scriptable and most interfaces are exposed so they offer advanced functions if you need them. Gnome objects are also scriptable and menus can be added easily as well, though the Gnome interface is much less complex by default.

1. You assert that it'd good, I assert that it's crap. I'm not used to it and it seems to serve no real purpose - just a rather inferior alternative to minimizing.

I hear the same thing about tabs in Mozilla/Firefox vs. opening up a new browser window in IE.

1. I guess the most significant problem with X has to be the lack of programs that I'm used to.

Yep. It's like drinking Pepsi or Coke all the time and being introduced to Dr. Pepper or lime Coke. It just seems *wrong*, doesn't it?

1. Name something as good as the MSVC++ GDE.

Haven't used it.

1. And file associations are wacky in Linux. Seemingly random association/non-association with programs. I remember using it, and I had 3 files of the same extension; two were associated with a text editor, the other wasn't, and the file browser just said it didn't have any application to open it with, and didn't provide me with any way to specify one!

It's goofy under Windows too. You just don't notice it now! (The only OS that I've used that got it right was OS/2's WorkPlace Shell. No, I don't want to go back to that; OS/2 had other problems though the WPS was sweet.)

1. Windows Explorer might not be perfect, but it's the best file manager I've ever used.

It's clumsy to me. It hides too much even when you tell it not to and has strange arbitrary limits. There is no direct link between what you do on the command line and what you do in the file manager. (Example: Try and copy a file using Explorer from a network resource. Now, do the same thing from CMD.)

The Konqueror and Nautilus shells need some improvements, for sure. Many of the failures in Explorer also appear in them as well. At it's base, though, if you mount a network resouce under Unix/Linux/... it shows up locally. These links can be placed in arbitrary locations instead of fictional "I:, J:, X: ..." lettered resouces. Microsoft is moving away from letters because of the substantial drawbacks but the tools to handle links (soft and hard not 'shortcuts') are very crude and not at all integrated with the GUI.

My biggest gripe with both Windows and KDE/Gnome as desktops is that they are both very inconsistant, though KDE/Gnome are less so. What I mean by that is that for Windows *AND* KDE/Gnome there isn't a complete 1:1 map between what you see and where things are in all programs.

KDE does handle network transparency very well, though, and includes plugins for a variety of network protocols, compressed files, and specific data types (such as audio CDs). For example: You can drop in an audio cd and browse to the MP3 directory on the CD...drag off a file...and the MP3 will be created on the fly. The 'view' of the MP3 directory is entirely virtual and does not really exist. The MP3 is only created when you drag and drop or otherwise access the file from the MP3 directory.

Where it fails by default is that you can't write a shell script that loads an audio CD, copies the MP3s, and ejects the CD -- because at the shell prompt there's nothing to see! You can use DCOP (an enhanced version of what Windows offers in COM).

The good thing is that there are tools being developed that will push this virtual interface back down to the OS level. That way, every tool sees the same results.

That said, Explorer doesn't match up to Konqueror very well. Here are 2 examples on how Konqueror is damn nice;

Managing web sites

View profiles

You can do some of this under Windows, though it usually requires finding extra plugins, installing them, or using a one-off application to 'manage' things like your camera (using whatever protocol the camera can understand).

Both KDE objects are fully scriptable and most interfaces are exposed so they offer advanced functions if you need them. Gnome objects are also scriptable and menus can be added easily as well, though the Gnome interface is much less complex by default.

This series of articles I wrote with a friend might also be of interest.

It outlines some practical nicities that are a result of the technologies like KIO slaves mentioned in the Ars Technica piece, including:

Managing web sites (handling content without an FTP application, web gallery creation)

Extending Konqueror with view profiles (replace FTP/Samba applications with Konq, and browse Google easily)

Using KPrinter in any app

Enjoy :-)

For those who find the different licenses confusing, and maybe the whole point of different licenses confusing, I have written a short article explaining some of the basics:

What are all these licenses? (as part of a series of informative articles to accompany 'technical' tutorials)

What message is this supposed to send? Why would the EU change its mind because a few sites decided to protest? How does the absence of a few sites hurt the EU? More likely, they'll only hurt themselves.

As somebody who has shut down a GNU/Linux web site he runs, and who was lobbying inside the European Parliament yesterday, let me explain.

This web protest is one part of the picture:

* On wednesday, there was a real demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels. This helped raise the profile of our cause in Brussels, and particularly amongst MEPs who will all have hopefully noticed or heard/read about it.

* There has been an on-going petition with over 16,000 small businesses and many more individuals signing it, giving weight to our claims and putting pressure on MEPs

* There has been an on-going lobbying process, intensified this week, writing to, phoning and talking face-to-face with MEPs, trying to convince them of our arguments. As of yesterday, it looks like we're suceeding in widening splits in the PPE-DE conservative alliance and the PSE socialist alliance, and we've already won over the greens, the far-left socialists and the far-right liberals.

* Many web sites have displayed little images or text links to get more petition signatures and raise the profile of the campaign

* Finally, this web protest is aimed at pushing the profile of the campaign even higher, getting many more geeks involved, and hopefully others who come across web sites they visit often and see the protest page. Doubtless few MEPs will see this, but it is raising the profile (as this /. story is doing) which is a very good thing at this critical time

You might also want to check our NewToLinux, which has a whole set of tutorials, many of them based around the command line, aimed at the beginner who wants to know a little more about GNU/Linux than how to point and click in KDE. They're also, unlike linuxnewbie.org (which is great at what it does - random tutorials), ordered and so can be read like a book.

NewToLinux - with excellent tutorials that guide you through the basics step by step
JustLinux - with forums to ask all those annoying questions, and again not get insulted

Though buying a book is usually also a good idea, especially for when you can't access the web ;)

A simple example might be where Robert Love mentions the need for a standard disk layer. What does that mean, to somebody who doesn't understand the way that the kernel in many areas creates a standard set of instructions (e.g. for disks, like "write", "access x data") and that he thinks this should be extended to disks, to take some of the bloated code that repeats all this stuff out of the SCSI codebase?

I think hackers in general really need to work on getting their ideas across to the more average person, otherwise most people have no reason to get excited by new releases unless they enjoy growing numbers!