Slashdot Mirror
Rasterman Speaks On E17 And The Future
JigSaw writes: "The team consisting of TheRasterman and Mandrake (among others) are hard at work to bring Enlightenment 0.17 to the Linux desktop. E17 will be a lot more than a window manager, something closer to a complete GUI solution for X. OSNews hosts an interesting interview with Rasterman and also features some (unseen-before) screenshots of E17. Some say that E17 will be the next big thing in the GUI design (even if Rasterman states in the interview that Linux won't probably take over the Desktop), with plans to incorporate libraries like eVas, which look very modern in concept, design and implementation."
If you put Linux next to some other operating systems out there for a cost comparison, the conclusions are devastating for Linux.
Linux costs not only more because of the frequent updates which require new cdrom's to be bought if you don't have a high speed Internet connection.
Another factor in Linux cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously.
Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose loses water, when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.
Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally.
The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.
I can go on and on and on, but the message is clear. In this world, there is no place for Linux. It's not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc. The best place it should ever reach is the toy store, and even that would be flattering.
Yeah.
Slashdot should really consider moving over to FreeBSD.
As you all know all big companies use FreeBSD, wether it's Microsoft, Google, Yahoo etc. They all chose to go for FreeBSD, why?
Because *it works*
I hope someday the slashdork folks will be smart enough to understand, that GPL is a Bad Thing.
BSD is Freedom. GPL has severe limitations.
We all like Freedom don't we ?
Look, the problem with Linux, and I've said this time and again, is that we don't need a variety of desktop environments. If we did, GEM (for those of you old enough to remember what it was) and OS/2 would be competing with Windows. They're not, they're dead.
Linux needs a single GUI. Be it Gnome, KDE, or whatever. Pick one, build it right. Follow Microsoft's example and do extensive usability tests, and make it easy and intuitive for the user to use it. Otherwise, you're just not going to see Linux EVER enter the desktop market. Yeah, I know, a lot of you guys use it. You represent less than 1% of the computer using market.
I've always hoped that Linux could crack the desktop market. I want to see it compete with MS. I want to be writing applications for Linux. The problem is, I just don't think that's ever going to happen. There are too many factions, and no single one appears to have a huge advantage. All of these GUIs are being written by programmers, for programmers.
I've used Gnome. I could figure my way around it 90% of the time, but I've been programming for 22 years. I'm way less than 1% of the desktop users in that regard.
Give your GUI to your mother, your father, your grandparents. If they can all figure it out, then you're on to something. If they can't, then you've really got nothing.
What of directfb and other candidates for The Next Big Thing? I think directfb is very cool from a graphics perspective, since it uses the full 2D and 3D capabilities of a card, and can fall back to software modes if necessary. It's also independent of X, has a Gtk+ port, ... Besides, we all know Rasterman couldn't code his way out of a paper bag... He could sell his code to the Olive Garden as genuine spaghetti.