Slashdot Mirror
KDE 3.2: A User's Perspective
Karma Sucks writes "In KDE 3.2 - A User's Perspective (mirror), W. Kendrick gives an incredible visual overview of some of the lesser known features of KDE. Together with a recent article on GNOME, it's become clear that the Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives."
Thought you might appreciate a mirror , as well as a downloadable copy (about 3.6 meg).
Mod up with 'underrated' instead of 'informative,' otherwise I'll use your karma points to troll at +1 later.
~Darl the Honest Troll
I had *no* idea about some of this functionality -- I haven't tried KDE since before 3.0. Time to set up a test box...
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
Stop asking that question. It's the wrong question. The correct question is "Are Windows users ready to use Linux on the desktop?". Linux has been desktop-ready since 1991, it's just that the majority of users haven't been ready for it.
Here is a collection of screen caps showing more of KDE's little features. Very nice. These two articles are the kind of things that MS users are going to look at and say, "wow, cool" before they decide to take the plunge. Good show.
It's become clear that the Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives.
Now that's a phrase I'm sure even Microsoft can agree with. Let me rephrase it for you:
"The Linux desktop has everything proprietary alternatives have, but the proprietary alternatives are better."
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives.
Comment 1: Haven't we been here for years, now? "Linux is almost ready", "We've all but surpassed windows", etc.
Comment 2: We won't have a desktop that can compete with windows until we still fix the stupid things that are inherent to x-windows WM's. All I want in life is to be able to cut-and-paste reliably between applications. Text, and pictures, mind you, and in a perfect world, spreadsheet data. You know what else would be nice? If it were faster - i.e. didn't have to go through unix sockets to do anything. Or if it didn't have to render all image files into bitmaps offscreen to display them.
No, we've still got a long way to go. I do really like a good gnome desktop running ximian, it's true, and it's getting better. But, sorry, we're no where near the "it just works" of apple / winxp.
~Will
sig?
Is AA still done by Xft?
I write in my journal
Don't forget if you want to use kmail...
Rename the default identity, add an email address, shutdown kmail, reboot the machine, and then MAYBE you can send messages via SMTP.
(as a side note, I have twiddled every kmail option, restarted, everything, and kmail will still not send mail via SMTP. I gave up and am using Mozilla which worked the very first time I tried.)
We'd jump all over this if this problem existed in Outlook.
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
"it's become clear that the Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives."
Come on, pay attention! Since when has winduhs or mac been able to:
-have multiple desktops, as many as you like
-console switching
-unlimited customizability in appearance
-run multiple users in multiple X sessions on a single box
-oh yeah, and console sessions too
It's just pitiful how folks don't pay attention.
---
SCO is weenies
Gator is Spyware
Microsoft is thugs
"it's become clear that the Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives." You know, it exists this thing..."Mac OS X", the one that is being copied by gnome/kde/longhorn. So "not all" of them But I'd argue that the amount of aplications in linux and the fact that it runs on any platform that can be called "desktop" makes it a better choice.
Give it a try!
XP has most of those features. Sure it cant read tars by default like it reads zip, but zips are a lot more common
And there is even more.
Or did you know that you can use emacs like keybindings in KDE?
One can for example open documents with ctrl-x-o, save with ctrl-x-s or search with ctrl-x-f (of course with KDE 3.3 one can also use less-like find with '/'). And mouse gestures are also supported...
Both have improved
Both all crashed and/or locked up on me frequently
That could be my distro or the way I have my system set up.
I hate to say it, but this does not happen to me with my win2K desktop at work.
KDE and Gnome have both come a long way, but they both have work ( albeit a lot less )to do to catch up to M$, let alone surpass it.
For now, I am going back to icewm
No crashes, no lockups, faster, fewwer resources, and it does all I need.
Steve
KDE is to MS Windows as Kia is to Honda.
And the interface is STILL slower on equiv. machines due to using XWindows. Users don't like that.
Blar.
Yeah, check out that great screenshot showing the user easily changing his desktop size from 800x600 to 1024x768 without mucking around with an XConfig file!
AHHHHHHH! I'm burning with goodness again!
- Reakk, Sluggy Freelance
>It successfully read the title of an O'Reilly book!
um, except it seems to have got it wrong, unless the title really is "Programming Embedded Svstems..."
Oh, and what operating system lets you display vectors without rassterizing them? (hint, you'd need a vectorial monitor, like Asteroids had).
And fonts look just fine. The author disabled AA in his screnshots for some reason.
the gnome reviewer claims that iTunes displays everything in one big list...
which can only mean the author did not find the 'browse' button in iTunes, which lets you browse the archive by artist, by album, by genre, and all at the same time, too - i am organizing and accessing 30G of music just fine using this interface - it's genius.
i don't know the Gnome app and don't want to take anything away from it, but beating iTunes in usability would be a very tall order. similar to the iPod, there is not much that can be improved on the core-functionality side.
GREAT article (I never though KDE could have something so cool like thumbnails of the files when you're moving files and you're going to overwrite some) Now, If he could have used a nice theme (keramic is enought) and antialiased fonts it'd perfect....
Linux is just the kernel! KDE and GNOME can run on all sorts of Operating systems. I currently typing this from Gnome 2.6 on NetBSD. Yes, BSD is dying (sic), but at least It can die with a graphical grave.
Care to enlighten us about what you are talking, or is it enough for you to dumbly rant?
Copy and past works between every appliation, it's just not ctrl-c ctrl-v, middle click does just fine.
As far as the fonts are concerned, I'd like to know what distro you're useing, just so that I don't recommend it by accident to anyone...
Gentoo, Slackware and Mandrake all render sweet out of the box.
Ask 8 slackers a question, get 10 awnsers (a citation, but I can't remember from who)
From the Gnome article, it seems like the developers are pushing for simplicity, which is fine...on the surface.
"Simple Dialog Boxes," "Simple Menus and Program Names," "Simple Configuration Tools and Preferences"...I can live with the first 2, but in the Land of Configuration and Preferences, I don't think "simple" equates to "good."
I've used my fair share of WMs, and I think Gnome and KDE fall behind for much the same reason: they just aren't as configurable as I'd like. KDE definitely has a step up on Gnome in this area, but it still just wasn't what I was looking for.
Like the parent, I use fvwm. Definitely not easy to configure, but you can do most everything you could possibly ever want to do with a window manager. Nearly every type of behavior is supported, including most (if not all) behaviors from all other WMs. I made the move from Windows to Linux for the sake of power and control. I'm not saying Grandma should use fvwm, but we all know it's supposed to be functionality before all else, and Gnome seems to be backwards here.
Are there no-one around who can create something that looks good, so we can have watchable fonts without us having to install Microsoft technology afterwards to make it watchable.
which is a shame because it really pulls down the otherwise great impression you get from the KDE graphics.
1. UNINSTALL! Maybe I am a moron, but I find it impossible to cleanly and completely uninstall non-packaged stuff. 2. Build interface. That is, I can build most non-packaged software with configure, make, make install, but of course I am too lazy to check where the stuff ends up by default and to pass the appropriate configure parameters. KDE is for lazy people like me, so where is the mechanism that keeps my machine clean even for non-packaged software? 3. While we are at it, I am tired of recursively finding out from configure what the dependency chain is. If I want to install something, I want to install the dependencies as well. And no, I don't want to RTFM. 4. A complete equivalent to M$ Money. 5. I shouldn't have to care whether an app is a GNOME app or a KDE app. 6. Other than that: looks great, when is it out packaged for Fedora?
wtf is a sig?
Whilst I haven't looked at KDE recently (for some reason, my current PC refuses to boot any version of Linux I've thrown at it so far. Annoying, to say the least) modifying desktop behaviour was a horrific settings search. I don't recall an easy method (ala Policies) for enforcing desktop and icon settings.
In any case, the desktop isn't the most important part of any operating system. Before Linux will be 100% ready for prime time, we need a lot more well-integrated application programs - the killer ones of course being a decent database (frontend - myPHPAdmin doesn't qualify), office suite (certianly getting there with OpenOffice) and "groupware" application. Whilst there are a few nice web-based applications, these are not as easy to use and flexible as a native application is.
Having said that, any time I need to find an application to recommend at work, my first point of call is and always will be Sourceforge. Even if the application doesn't do precisely what we need, the company I work for isn't adverse to a little "tuning" of an application. (this is not always a good thing - our current workflow application is an abortion that grew from it's original Excel spreadsheet)
"After users have learned to use a bunch of different desktops, which one do they find easiest to use, and most useful?" This is a fair questions, and the answer actually matters. I use Windows, OS X, and Linux (Gnome usually) on a daily basis and I think Linux wins this one.
I think, while this may be the case, it's actually the applications we should look on. To me, a desktop on you computer is like the physical desktop at work: Sure, some come with nice drawers and others com with tables that can be lifted electrically, rather than by cranking. But it's the tools you use for work that matter, not how neatly they are sorted.
To me, any improvement on Gimp, OpenOffice, (etc) is more important than some new feature in KDE or Gnome. Because the desktop is just a way to get to the applications I do my work in.
Excellence: Moderate (mostly affected by comments on your karma)
Thanks for the download copy. It's much faster to view, obviously.
Blasphemer !!!
Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!
What KDE needs is a freeform database along the lines of Infoselect or Ask Sam or Circus Ponies - Notebook... haven't seen any such for KDE or Gnome...
MLT - simple and robust open source multimedia framework for Linux
Really there isn't just one question to ask.
You're thinking did SCO file six lawsuits or only five. And to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is David Boies, the most powerful lawyer in the world and will blow your countersuit clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question. Do I feel lucky? Well do you, punk?
The real Ralph Yarro posts as Anonymous Coward. Anyone else is an impostor.
"I didn't do it!"
(Fellow moderators: please try to learn that ancient craft of RTFA before modding something up in the sky)
Excellence: Moderate (mostly affected by comments on your karma)
Mandrake comes really close to achieving the ideal of a console-less Linux installation. I don't advocate getting rid of the console entirely, but if we really except this thing to appeal to to Joe User, it has to conceal that ugliness as well as possible and have a happy little GUI for every major function - in other words, the direction OS X has somewhat successfully taken. I don't care for the usability of OS X that much, but I feel the concept is there.
just show that linux is not user friendly. Ugly girl. Smart? Yes. Sexy? Yes.
"When a new song begins to play, JuK can show its title over the panel for a few seconds. You can even go back or skip ahead!"
For me it is most annoying feature on mozilla firefox (download manager)
GUI is just like language.
Linux is for geeks and windows is for below average users. But both will work.
Remind you. When I sit behind some computer I want to see familiar interface. Personal computer is personal. Burt sometimes you just have to assist co-workers. Where is this file. How should I do THIS. Etc.
It helps to have a common denominator. Even if this is the as low as it is at the moment (windows)
I would like to to see a future where op. system is free but you pay for graphical interface. One for accountatnts, one for shchool boys, one for programmers.
I wish reviewers would choose a nice theme before making screenshots. Antialiased fonts have been available for at least a couple of years! I know, I know, this review is for showing off the functionality, not the looks, but newbies looking at it might get the wrong idea... Its definitely difficult for new users to grasp the level of configurability of the UI. My LUG did a "linux demo day" a while back, and one of the questions a visitor asked me was "all these desktops seem look different. what does linux look like by default"? I didn't have much luck telling him there wasn't one, and that it was distro and even version specific. So again, it would be nice if reviewers paid attention to these little things.
Some operating system, it might have been Windows or it might have been before it, designated ctrl-z, ctrl-x, ctrl-c, and ctrl-v as the hotkeys for undo, cut, copy, and paste. Because it is in Windows and true of 90%+ of today's applications, it is as good as standard. The few notable applications that insist on doing things their own way (alt-x, middle-click, auto-copy, being incompatible with KClipper) need to think more about user convenience than their own personal beliefs.
this is not only the linux desktop... but the freebsd, netbsd, openbsd, solaris, win32, mac osx, and many other operating systems. kde doesn't just run on linux people!!
Is there a way to make eveything default to Firefox instead of Konq? or at least the random web links I can click various places?
Besides, as far as KDE has come, it isn't even close. You can't copy and paste between EVERY application.
Care to give an example? Qt's old days of broken clipboards are a long time in the past.
Fonts look like CRAP.
You've got to be kidding. Fonts look at least as nice under a modern system as they do on a Windows box -- good fonts (like Vera) are finally included, and the rendering and antialiasing is certainly on par with any other rendering system I've seen.
Everything has to be rasterized to be displayed (including eps files).
What are you talking about? I doubt there is a single system in existence on Earth that can display EPS without rasterizing it. Maybe an analog pen-based plotter. I've yet to see *anything* like this.
May we never see th
I can hardly wait for my Mandrake 10 ISO's to finish downloading (Only three more days to go!)
Linux will never be a user friendly desktop until you don't have to recompile the kernel to get your hardware to work. Every time I try to use linux I run into this.
I don't like the way all this functionality is brought to the user. It's much too chaotic, with much-used items mixed up with never-used items, wasting much time and resources with searching through options you won't use anyway. I booted up KDE 3.2 yesterday, and after five minutes I was starting to get annoyed by the huge number of menu items in Konqueror, the filebrowser that tries to be virtually everything. I think we can learn a lot from the success Microsoft has had with a much less configurable interface. A desktop doesn't need to do everything. The missing functionality will be delivered by third parties anyway, and if there are tools virtually everybody uses, you can consider it as missing functionality, and try to build it into the desktop. I think GNOME is starting to work this way now, but with GNOME the gap between the kernel and the GUI is too large (it misses things like device management).
I love their sample spell check... Guess what it is...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I have tried over 20 different distros, and the ONLY distro I needed to compile on is Gentoo, which dosen't come with a kernel! The days of compiling kerenls are long gone! Please try a modern distro and find that your point is now invalid!
Its like a MS interface except not any better. Really it's almost identical in terms of layout and usibility.
Well, for 31337 users like you, there are DEs like GNUStep, ROX, and many more open source alternatives. Or, if you find the entire concept of a premade DE to be objectionable, there are vanilla WMs like sawfish, E, fvwm, blackbox, and many more alternative window managers -- combine one with gkrellm or xload/xclock or an alternative system monitor and maybe something like xbindkeys, and you've whipped yourself up an X11 environment.
I find it somewhat difficult to believe that you've tried the dozens or more choices in each category and simply found that there is *no* combination that suits your fancy.
May we never see th
Fight 1
In the red corner we have tar; in the blue corner we have zip. Touch gloves, let's have have a fair fight, now come away clean!
Tar: 15,800,000
Zip: 41,600,000 By a landslide!
Fight 2
In the red corner, may I present tarball; in the blue corner, his challenger zipfile. Come away clean, and fight!
Tarball: 510,000
Zipfile: 132,000
I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
Try using kde 3.2 that comes with mandrake 10. That has korganizer, kmail, and several other kde apps integrated into a common interface, which is REALLY REALLY nice IMO. One of the things I've wanted for kmail for a while, and the reason I was using Evolution before.
It works straight out of the box, just enter in your servers in your profile and you're ready to go. Try it out, you might like it...
Key points being...
Until those things become standard across all distros, Linux taking over the desktop will be a sad joke.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
How do you want to get people using linux instead of windows? Look at all these screenshots, they look like shit! The average guy would'nt even try to install linux if it is to look bad...
Just keep telling yourselves that Linux is better than all the proprietary alternatives instead of actually trying to innovate with it. Then you have liberty to decry the unwashed masses and remain a niche; which is what you want deep down inside. :)
This is a great document. The next step is to actually think about the end user experience before you write the software.
Better documentation can fix that learning curve better than ignoring the docs and adding new features as fast as possible, IMO. As soon as a new learner has to go hunt something down on the net to fix some problem or to help them get to speed in using whatever app is bothering them, it starts to blow chunks big time for them. If the built in help system was way more extensive and written in non geek and used very little arcane acronyms, it would help. And the format needs to be such it's easily transferred to dead tree copies for reference.
I'd like to see an (obvious to newbies) automatic update for documentation for the successful bug fixes and patches, click a button, all the latest fixes in clear precise language get updated to the on machine data base. A fix won't work if even one step is non clear, and can actually make it worse if the newbie tries to implement the fix. Don't leave new adopters hanging is the message I am saying. And it needs to be realised that traditional man pages aren't enough, too cryptic for new learners mostly, they were designed for experienced sys admins and developers, and are swell for that purpose, but for other people - the other 99.999% of the people out there- they create a big "WTF does this mean?" in their minds.
It looks like you haven't used Linux since 1999! You are so behind with the times it isn't even funny! Its almost as if you were a troll!
Mandrake 10 comes with
Apps that user want and need! Over 3 CDs worth!
Depenancies automatically solved
Comes with the Galaxy theme! Standard UI across both KDE AND GNOME!
A print system that automagaically detects even my old Epson 640 printer.
So stop trolling and start downloading mandrake 10 today, and releaise that your "problems" have been solved for YEARS!
Yeesh! Mandrake had automagic depedancy solving since version 1! In 1998!
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Create a WAP server
Is it me... or does it seem to be missing a planet ( or two )?
Why do I need to see a thumbnail view of a textfile?
I just wanted to point out an area where KDE kicks the crap out of Microsoft's best OS. File management.d .org/pr esentations/kde-user-persp/thumbnails.html
Looks at the pictures here.
http://static.kdenews.org/mirrors/www.lugo
Look at the way the thumbnails pop up to a useable size. In XP you can still see what the thumbnail is but having it double in size on mouse-over allows you to get a much better look without having to launch a seperate application, namely Windows Picture and Fax viewer.
Also look at what happens when you copy or move a picture file. Instead of "Do you want to overwrite xxx.jpg with xxx.jpg" you actually see what your doing. And people say Linux desktops don't innovate...
The tools and applications that are now included with KDE by default are vastly superior to the ones that come on XP. When will Windows get such full featured scanning/ocr software by default? How about a decent cd burner app? Heck KDE even has XP beat on creating something as basic as desktop snapshots. For those people who are willing to make a go of it using Free software KDE makes for a nice upgrade from XP once you realize all the great features that come with it.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
KDE needs to stop calling non-KDE apps "legacy" applications. This word used to be an euphemism for "old" (thus, "worse") and due to overuse, the word itself has become derogatory.
To this day I have not seen a KDE editor that is better than GVim.
The word "legacy" embeds some negative attitudes you don't really want to associate yourself with - so grow up - just call them what they really are: "non-KDE" applications.
Microsoft does have a 'multiple desktop' doohickey. Only four desktops, yes, but the feature is there.
/ In stall/2/WXP/EN-US/DeskmanPowertoySetup.exe
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler
This is not a difficult feature, but have you considered that they may not have it integrated it because they simply don't like it? It is NOT that easy for a new user to use; windows do get lost in different places on different windows. Yes, its nice for power-users; and for them, they have multiple options to get it..
Its unfortunate. I was looking over that list of features that KDE 3.2 has, looking for ways it may have surpassed what's available in XP. There's really very little.
What needs to happen, perhaps within kde, is an abstractin level, that is plugable, so we can tell how to get freebsd and sun system information.
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
I started reading the comments and found the SOS. As usual all the same diptards simply use this as a another chance for Gnome and KDE users to troll each other.
I use KDE it has all the things everyone complains it doesnt have and does all the things they say it doesn't do. Is intuitive and is usually preconfigured to do what I want. When it's not there usually is an easy to understand method to configure it the way I want that is easy to find and use.
Oh I forgot KDE uses QT so it's double plus bad because some assbite can't read and or use his brain to understand QT is free if you are using it in a non-comercial way. Oh yea it's bad cause RMS doesnt bless QT too. Guess what I don't care this is not the Linux kernel or some closed binary I have to compile against it from some 3rd party.
There are people who bitch about how KDE looks. Well mine looks the way I want it. It's wallpapered with a computer generated picture of of Mars taken from near the surface. The control pannel is at the top and I have a few icons on the right side of the screen. I works for me.
If your not using KDE don't worry about it. I don't and wont use Gnome simply out of personal preference. I will not try and force my personal preferences on others. KDE works for me if it doesn't work for you use what you like. It nice and also very good to have choices. Free and open source software gives you that choice. Hell use the CLI is that is what floats your boat. Just don't bag on somethihng because you don't use it. like it, have nothing else to do.
If you don't like what I write don't be a CS and mod it down. Refute it.
Yea I can't spell. So what is your point?
"1) That an error occurred. This part should be clean and readable to an end user.
2) The program, process, or whatever caused it.
3) The condition that caused the error.
4) The target that was being operated upon."
5) the user gets told immediately the proper steps to mitigate his immediate problem, what to do to get back to the most-stable state from right before the crash or glitch
6) The bug should be easily documentable automagically, offer a simple yes/no box to check for joe user that will let him email a copy of the bug report to the official registered developers automagically AND give you a receipt it was delivered (basically a thank you, it's a psychological thing there to show the input is appreciated) AND an automatic alert later on direct right to your mailbox when a fix is accomplished along with all relevant app update info. Way more people (non coders, just people who want to help by submitting bugs) would put in bug reports if it was easier to do, and if they got the feedback. If they (the joe users) were trying to use the app, of course they are interested in making it better and getting back to using the app. Make it as easy as possible to accomplish this for them, the "sharing" deal..
I know when I used to have that with netscape on my macs, I always let it send in the bugreports (talkback I think it was), but dang, it woulda been nice to get some sort of automatic feedback that referenced that particular bug, with periodic updates, at least weekly. I wanted to know, and not have to go googling surfing around some weird bugtraq place, just send me an autobotresponse email on some of the progress is all. To this day I got no idea if any of those reports that went off from my boxes amounted to good stuff for the developers or not. It's like the bug reports go off to never never land for joeaverage user.
You sound like a serious asshole. I agree with my A/C brethern. Go choke on a fat cock. No one cares about your paper MCSE
... of grammar and syntax, this statement it's become clear that the Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives says that KDE and Gnome hasn't surpassed the propriety alternatives. And since I use 3 out of the 4 daily (MacOS X, Windows and KDE), I really agree with that.
That's not what he meant, of course, but I want to know what he's been smoking and how can I get some?
The whole thrust is "we're not as dysfunctional as we used to be so we're better." Not. Delude yourself as you may, it ain't a Mac and not in the same league as The Mac Experience.
like windows help is much better. You have to go through five pages of text to find out your questions can't be answered and they give me a link to a webpage that doesn't help. Where man telnet gives me what I want.
I think you're right, improvements to OpenOffice have a much more powerful ability to bring users to the platform. Getting some big accounting software makers to create a linux version would also help a lot. Right now the average user has no reason to switch to Linux because the software they know runs on Windows.
So Linux needs two approaches to successfully gain steam on the desktop. The first approach being a continued evolution for existing desktop products. I'm sorry to say but the Gimp still can't compared with Photoshop. Then the second approach, I still can't get Avid for Linux, or DreamweaverHave you tried?
I did. Cutting pasting (Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V) between OpenOffice (whatever of program the suite) and basicly any other KDE or Gnome program, should work. And currently I haven't found a single one where it doesn't. I can 'even' copy a picture in a director directly onto my document.
I don't have Photoshop nor Gimp installed so I couldn't test your scenario. But it worked with images and text between OOWriter, OOCalc, gedit (..no images) and Konqueror.
Why do none of the screenshots have font antialiasing? Makes for a not-so-impressive demo.
You fed the troll. (Put kindergarden teasing rhyme here)
Couldn't you see how blantantly obvious it was?
When you can install an application with out spending hours or days tracking down various RPMs, wrestling with dependencies and conflicts, or having to update gtk2.0+-0.2.2.1 or some other "obscure" thing, then it'll be ready. It's fine for people who like to do this kind of thing, but all people in the "real world" want is to be able to install an application and have it work correctly the first time. When you can download a file and install it in one click... then linux will be ready for the average user's desktop. All the rest of this stuff is just eye candy. Pretty, but not what's really needed.
Insert witty
Huh? What are you talking about?
> 1. Start gedit.
> 2. Type in something. Select all and click Copy.
> 3. Start kedit.
> 4. Click Paste. It works.
Ok, that works, but what about:
1. Start gnumeric
2. Type in something. Create a chart. Select the chart and click Copy.
3. Start OOo Writer.
4. Click Paste. It works *not*!
Copy and paste of "Text" is trivial. But there is more to copy and paste than unformatted "Text".
Let's face reality.
http://static.kdenews.org/mirrors/www.lugod.org/pr esentations/kde-user-persp/thumbnails.html
How *do* you do thumbnail previews like they show there? I'm using KDE 3.2.1, but I can't seem to get Konqueror to do that.
Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
Its not forced cheer, its a "FISHER PRICE" interface. "My First 'Puter"
hahahahahaaa! That's great, it's not easy to do good satire. Well done.
---
SCO is weenies
Gator is Spyware
Microsoft is thugs
Kome on, kut the krap! Kan't you find kooler applikation names? Use your kreativity.
I'm really grinning. Not out of spite, it's nice to see so much enthusiasm, it's cool that Linux users are really trying to go one better than closed source OS.
And the amount of apps that are provided - for free no less - is growing both in numbers and in usability.
But seriously, before you beat the standard set-up of a new Macintosh, you'll really have to pull together and pull through.
I'm talking about standard installed: OS X, which is really very nice, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iChat, iDVD, Garageband, Safari, Mail, AppleWorks, iSync, AddressBook, Preview, Texteditor and a host of other small apps.
I'm also talking about unpack, unwrap, plug in computer, set up internet and be surfing in less than ten minutes.
That's about the experience you have with virtually everything you hook up to your macintosh. It's pretty cool, and hardly ever goes wrong. That's why I'm sticking to it, not for the lick-able buttons, a common misconception, but the last twenty years I've never put my tongue close to the monitor nor met anyone who has. Really.
A tip for reviewers: when you want to compare to XP or OS X, make sure you've spent some time with their latest and greatest and have tried doing what average users do with those machines. Then and only then you can pull out the superlatives. It's not helpful to compare sys-admin desktops and say "well, there's everything the average Joe will need".
I think, therefore I am...I think.
KWallet sounds like a nice tool. Does anybody here know how the security is? Does it encrypt the data using the password as key?
When I read about the noatun voice removal feature I started wondering, is that one as fake as the one in xmms that really just computes the difference between the left and right sound channel?
Kompare looks nice too, I'm surely going to try that next time I need to look at a patch. But actually the screenshot in the article shows a typical problem with diff generated patches. It notice there are identical lines with bracets and match them. But actually they shouldn't have been matched. The one on the right really should have been matched with an indented version on the left. Functionally this is rarely a problem, but visually it is confusing. Now what would be really kool would be if they included a feature to tell the program to match particular lines and then save a fixed patch. BTW my guess is that when Kompare is asked to compare two files, what it really does is just calling the command line version of diff to create a patch, and then view that (Not that there is anything wrong with that, it fits perfectly with the Unix philosophy).
Karamba looks kool, I need to try that one day. And the scripting features too.
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
Let me provide another rebuttal for your uninformed comments about X11.
Comment 1: Haven't we been here for years, now? "Linux is almost ready", "We've all but surpassed windows", etc.
"All but surpassed" means that Linux is now equal to Windows, with the expectation that it will soon be better. So, yes, that's a big step forward from "almost ready".
Comment 2: We won't have a desktop that can compete with windows until we still fix the stupid things that are inherent to x-windows WM's. All I want in life is to be able to cut-and-paste reliably between applications.
Cutting and pasting has nothing to do with the "WM", it's part of the server. X11 has a modern, well-defined protocol for cut-and-paste, something that can handle arbitrary MIME types. If applications don't use it (and I agree more should), it's a problem with application writers, not X11.
Text, and pictures, mind you, and in a perfect world, spreadsheet data.
I would like to be able to do that on Macintosh and Windows as well. Unfortunately, non-text types are supported poorly by many applications on all platforms.
You know what else would be nice? If it were faster - i.e. didn't have to go through unix sockets to do anything.
You're jumping to conclusions. The overhead of Gnome and KDE is not related to going through UNIX-domain sockets, as you can easily see by running raw X11 applications (and Gnome, at least, is plenty fast on modern hardware, which is why there is a limit to how much time people invest in optimizing it).
In fact, X11 running on supported hardware is much faster than Macintosh Quartz and Windows in many drawing tasks. Furthermore, UNIX sockets are one of the fastest IPC mechanisms around and X11's asynchronous communication model is ideally suited to modern hardware.
What, you say, shared memory is faster? Funny you should mention that: X11 uses shared memory for communications on the local machine as well.
Or if it didn't have to render all image files into bitmaps offscreen to display them.
X11 has always had its native graphics APIs. For various reasons, different toolkits have chosen to ignore those and do their own off-screen software rendering, but that's not X11's fault.
One reason for why some toolkits have done this is in order to support Windows semantics on X11; you really can't blame X11 for the shortcomings of such cross-platform hacks. In fact, any cross-platform toolkit is going to have to make compromises, and just because of perceived market share, X11 usually ends up on the short end of the stick there. Don't blame X11 for the platform-tradeoffs of cross-platform toolkit vendors. In fact, just say "no" to cross-platform toolkits altogether.
Another reason is that some toolkits wanted an imaging model that X11 did not yet support natively, and instead of defining a server extension, they hacked together something client-side. It's debatable whether that was ever justified, but with XRender, X11 has a native graphics API that is every bit as full-featured as the latest Windows and Macintosh APIs, so there is no need for that. If your toolkit doesn't use it, complain to your toolkit vendor/author.
Is this man insane?
Not to be advocating any particular OS (I've used Win and Linux for years, Mac recently), but this guy tries to prove the superiority of Gnome by saying that a lack of options equals a good GUI design. This is clearly untrue, a good GUI should only show the NEEDED options, but ommitting half of the functionality only means simplifying the design obstacles for the developers.
As an example, he shows screenshots comparing the 'save as' dialogs, where the Gnome version is missing current directory contents, then says this is a 'cleaner' interface. Sure, but it also misses the main advantage of having a GUI; contextual views. Then he compares the Epiphany settings screen with that of IE. The first has only the 'home page' option, where the latter has some more. But that's a functionality choice, not a usability one! Maybe Epiphany users never need to manage their history and cookies, but these would seem to be the only other periodical actions for browser settings, so their placement in the IE screen would actually be a better choice. Finally, he calls the iTunes screen bloated and shows it, displaying a 30+ songs playlist and with additional equalizer screen (who uses that?) besides Muine, sporting a playlist of... 5 songs!
Wow, well, that's indeed much smaller, congrats. He states that iTunes has an inconsistent GUI and non-standard widgets. Which ones, exactly? Does he mean the play, stop and shuffle widgets? Very non-standard indeed. He muses about Muines ability to scan folders and whack everything in one giant playlist, which iTunes also does, apart from providing 'smart' playlists and album/artist/style browsing. Really, simply ommitting functionality does not equal good GUI design, it's just easier.
Its just want youre looking for. Just insert the CD when your computer boots, then in just 1 minute you have a complete desktop, surfing the web, office suite, music player, GAMES, graphics software and even development tools all ready to go!
Try knoppix today, you won't be disappointed!
I've got a internationalised (Dutch) version of KDE 3.2 so my guesstimates of the actual English names might be wrong.
Start the KDE Configurationcenter (or use the menu on your bottom pannel)
Klick Auxilary devices
Click Screen
Change screensize to 800x600
Click [Apply]
Click the accept button to keep changes
You can also load the Screen rotate and resize thingy like this:
Klick the K button
Klick System
Klick Screen rotate and resize
Now you see an extra button in the systemtray, left-click on it to see a list of possible resolutions. Click 800x600. Klick the accept button.
I've used mac, linux, windows. All the help pages I ever used..lack real bad. nearest I can relate to them is using my car and small engine repair manuals, usually they are better.
These help pages with OSs and apps... tell you which thing to click on,well that's cool, that usually isn't the problem, the problem is when you click on foobar, and foobar app don't do it's thing, then you are borked. Then you go to see how to fix borked, and it's not even there!
Tell you, I HATES to go looking for a fix to some problem on the net. I do it,obviously, don't like it though. I would much rather have a frequently updated bug fixing update get pushed to my help folder automagically, I don't even want to dork with it. The reason being, if I find the fix on x newsgroup or x web page or x app developers page, etc, it COULD have been pushed into the help manual once put in english. There's no coordination with all this stuff.
As someone who's tried a multitude of interfaces in many respects, who went from being a Windows user most of his life to being a Machead, my big issue streams around this simple idea: Where's the originality? Nearly everything shown didn't really impress me all that much from a visual level, and yeah, I clicked on every page. Sure, there were some cool things here and there, but I went into it thinking "what's the big deal?" especially since the initial post really played it up as Linux being THE desktop option. Here's what I saw as lacking: Visual appeal: Even Windows has improved on that in recent years, though it probably could have used a better default theme. As for KDE here, I really felt a lack of graphical consistency to bring everything together. It needs to be default in the desktop. Sure, the add-ons improved it greatly, but most users won't want to waste hours of time making their desktop look nice. Those people will just be like, "OH GOD THIS IS TOO MUCH! HOW DO I GET THIS STUPID THING OFF MY COMPUTER? I WANT WINDOWS WAAAAAAAAA" A lot of the apps didn't look clean, a lot of the programs didn't look smooth. I was reading that there are anti-aliased fonts available for KDE in this thread -- how come they weren't used? Simplicity: When I look at my OSX desktop, I know what's going on, right away, even though I have an Adium window, multiple apps loaded, a ton of icons on my desktop, and friggin' Konfabluator telling me that I have 38-degree temperatures outside. Those KDE screenshots confused me, at least a little. There was too much going on -- too many elements to worry about. As someone who has been using computers for over a decade now, who knows how to crack open a Windows registry, that's a problem. If you bring it down to the basics, this wouldn't be a problem at all. Too Windows-Like: This is the biggest problem with KDE, though admittedly a little less so with GNOME, at the moment. As opposed to finding its own way of doing things, it feels like there's just way too much of an effort to pick up on Windows users by making it familiar to them. That's not strategy, that's mimicry. Sure, there are only so many ways to skin a cat (as I'm sure the argument would come up in a reply to this), but as an example, look at OSX. They did something completly original with the OS, and it's STILL easy to use, it's STILL not confusing, and so on. Tacking vaguely Windows-like OS details to KDE is not the way to go. The way to go is having a huge group of people sit down (including USABILITY EXPERTS) and come up with something that comes across as killer app rather than also-ran. I mean this as no criticism of what your direction has been up to this point. It's obvious that KDE, and Linux in general, has come a long way. However, this comment bothers me due to its immense blindness: "it's become clear that the Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives." As someone who's pretty objective to Linux in general, and who potentially could've been convinced to switch, I wasn't impressed, and saw this comment more as blind support for the OS rather than an actual truth. In closing, I'm your potential audience. Give me a reason to switch other than, "It's kinda like Windows."
ShortFormBlog: Writing a little. Saying a lot.
By "everything has to be rasterized" he is probably talking about the fact that you cannot draw antialiased anything on current X except by drawing the resulting composite into a local bitmap and sending it. I agree with the original poster that this is a problem with the absurdly primitive X rendering model. But an interface whereby which anything describable by even PostScript can be rendered by the server does not exist on any platform, except perhaps OS/X.
A more accurate criticism of X is that they refused to add even the simplest "draw this image with alpha". This would get rid of about 90% of the reason GTK and other toolkits have to draw all their graphics in local memory and send it. Anti-aliased lines and shapes would be nice but Microsoft doesn't seem to be in any rush to do them either...
Some Linux applications are brilliant. I find that
they enhance the Windows computing experience substansially more than its own. Many of the programs I use are Linux based. Yet still,
I find using Linux to be a cuntinuous headache.
There is a spoon. Its in a bowl labeled: dog's lunch.
In 1985 just before the Macintosh came out, the standard on PC's was to use the numbered function keys for cut & paste (and for every other action). About the only real "standard" was that Microsoft Word (the DOS version) used Shift+Delete, Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Insert, and due to the fortunate fact that few other programs had assigned anything to those keys, other software was easily able to copy this, so there was a bit of uniformity. Except for Emacs clones, I never saw any software use Ctrl+letters for anything, typing them either inserted smily faces or inserted ^X notation.
The Macintosh definately standardized on the Apple+X,+C, and +V for cut, copy, paste. Also on Apple+Z for Undo. The X and C sort of make sense from a menemoic point of view, but it is pretty obvious these were selected for their positions on the Querty keyboard. I have no idea if Apple copied this layout from Xerox or anywhere else (like Apple II applications?)
After that you started see Mac-like programs on PC's and on Unix workstations such as Sun. I never saw one from that age that did not use Alt+X,Alt+C, and Alt+V for these actions. Compare a Mac and a PC keyboard from this era and it should be pretty obvious why Alt was chosen: the keys are in the same place. This is the source of the large number of Linux programs that "use Alt instead of Ctrl and are therefore inconsistent". The first versions of Windows (ie before 3) used Alt as the standard key for menu shortcuts, although Microsoft denies this, but I worked with those versions so I know. At that time Microsoft was still pushing the Shift+Insert idea as the "Windows standard" and these were displayed in the menus for the cut/copy/paste items.
For some reason (my best guess is due to conflicts with foreign keyboards which used the Alt key for shifting some keys to get foreign letters), in Windows 3.1 Microsoft changed the standard menu item shortcut binding from Alt to Ctrl. They also appeared to give up their attempt to be different than the Mac and made menu items for cut/copy/paste with Ctrl+x, ctrl+c, and ctrl+v shortcuts, hiding the shift+insert stuff (though they still work).
By "everything has to be rasterized" he is probably talking about the fact that you cannot draw antialiased anything on current X except by drawing the resulting composite into a local bitmap and sending it.
Ah, okay.
I agree with the original poster that this is a problem with the absurdly primitive X rendering model.
Mmm...I dunno. There *are* a few significant advantages to a client-side rendering system (though obviously a number of disadvantages).
The bad to the new Xft system:
* slower
* more memory usage for the poor X server
The good:
* Applications are not constrained by the limitations of the X rendering architecture. This was a major holdup for AbiWord and other word processing/layout applications that require a lot of data about the font and potentially fancy kerning and other goodies.
* Applications are not constrained to using font types supported by the X server. I still remember using a special TrueType font server (xftt) just to be able to see TrueType fonts back in the days of server-side rendering, when XFree86 didn't know about TrueType. In the same way, new font formats can be easily added.
* Fonts don't have to be installed server-side to be used -- and (a biggie) fonts are easily *user installable*. You don't have to put in a request for your sysadmin to add a font any more.
* (really a side benefit of moving to Xft) font descriptors were user-intimidating -- Xft is much more friendly.
But an interface whereby which anything describable by even PostScript can be rendered by the server does not exist on any platform, except perhaps OS/X.
I don't really think PostScript is the greatest system in the world for handing rendering data around, honestly. It does have the nice benefit of allowing compatibility with PostScript devices, but it's really designed around a system that's easy to implement with simple hardware, not one that's efficient in a modern computer system.
A more accurate criticism of X is that they refused to add even the simplest "draw this image with alpha". This would get rid of about 90% of the reason GTK and other toolkits have to draw all their graphics in local memory and send it.
Huh? No, I believe that you're incorrect (unless you're talking about original, unextended X11). The Render extension, which most people are now using by virtue of XFree86/x.org, allows exactly this functionality -- sending pixmap data with alpha information and allowing the server to composite it. The difference from traditional X11 is that the client does the rendering from the vector data to the raster+alpha data, not that the client does the compositing itself. That would suck and require twice the latency and much more bandwidth. Keep in mind that the client can have the server cache pixmap data once it's been handed to the server.
Anti-aliased lines and shapes would be nice but Microsoft doesn't seem to be in any rush to do them either...
This is provided on both X11 (+ GLX extension, common and in x.org and XFree86 at least) and Windows via OpenGL. Not sure what the status of hardware acceleration on these is -- it used to be that only professional CAD cards had aa lines allowed in hardware. It was one of the few features allowing price discrimination. NVidia used to have a resistor or something removed in their consumer-class cards that disabled a couple of features, most notably aa lines. 3dfx's products supported only antialiasing on lines with a thickness of 1. This may have changed, and aa lines may be standard on current consumer hardware, for all I know.
May we never see th
0.11 came out in Dec 1991. *Lots* of people were still using DOS 4 or 5 entirely without Windows.
Of course the original poster is being facetious and you are an idiot for being trolled so easily.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives. ... I could go on forever.
If so, why do the fonts look like crap?
If so, why does the desktop look like a cheap copy of Windows 98?
If so, why does
Note to people who publicise linux in general - use a good theme! this is good, this makes me want to hurt someone
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Together with a recent article on GNOME, it's become clear that the Linux desktop has all but surpassed proprietary alternatives.
Uh, no...no, it hasn't. Not one bit.
The day someone can come home and stick in a CD and install a printer driver for their new HP Laserjet is the day Linux will ever even come close to OS X or Windows. Not to mention all the hundreds of interface inconsistencies in KDE and GNOME. Why are their "More Programs" subgroups on the K menu? Why are their "System," "Control Center," and "Preferences" subgroups when those are redundant? I mean, I could go on and on and on and on...maybe when Linux someday gets a desktop binary installation/uninstallation API instead of relying on the godawful package managers out there.
Your post ignores the point that Linux desktops are missing a lot of functionality and ease of use that Windows has--drivers, binary installation/uninstallation, setting up shared printers (thanks, Eric Raymond), etc.
It's not that people want to use Windows, they just want to use something easy. Users aren't like the niche world of Slashdot, where the OS you use is like a holy religion you follow--people don't give a shit that they're using "Windows." Most people don't even know what version of Windows they're using, and they don't even pay attention to the bootup screen that says "Windows XP."
I agree completely. I don't understand how people can proudly display their desktop screenshots that are rife with dingy gray, ugly fonts that are a little too large and rife with very bad rendering (numbers seem to be a big problem, as well as Ws and other characters), and so on.
Here comes the part where people direct me to kde-look.org, which is like one big storinghouse for completely unusuable theme rejects that are meant only for making great screenshots but not for staring at all day on a screen.
This is why I prefer GNOME--extremely simple and clean. It's easy to look at, particularly for extended periods of time (not to mention that it's more professional to have an Applications and an Actions menu, instead of a big, goofy, giant "K").
Of course, I'd prefer we finally get rid of "start menus," taskbars, integrated net/filesystem browsers, etc. It's like people assume because it was all in Windows 98, it's a-okay to use it. Let's rip off everything in Windows 98-era GUIs, then criticize the company we stole them from and say we surpassed them!
This is all fine and dandy. KDE is cool and got alot of nice and good features.
/proc /usr / boot etc, make one dir called linux and put it all there..
But linux is not going to conquer the desktop market before it gets easy for everyone to install and uninstall the programs they wont. It is far from easy now.
And then there is the most importain thing. GAMES. A large majority of us out there stay with windows because we can play our games on it. Wine is nowhere near to be good enogh yet, if you wanna play all the latest games instead of waiting months or years for them to work. The day you conqueer the gaming market is the day I will move to linux.
KDE 3 is cool. No doubt. But its not enogh to have a cool desktop and be able to import Office docs. Hell. Most people I know hardly ever uses any docs. If it was a good office program people wanted on linux many would have moved allready. Open/staroffice is ready for mainstream people.
But that wont cut it.
Oh and whats with all the directories that you allways get with linux. They only confuse and scare people away. Pack them all up neatly like windows does. Instead of having bin / dev / home / lib / mnt
Oh well. I will most likely be modded down. But i had to say this...
I was looking at what it does. Agreed the fonts suck.
The improvements with kompare, thumbnails including full html documents with even images embedded, a real push desktop like the crazy wars of active desktop 5 years ago, spell checking as you type, full file names when you save under an app, scripting support, Better docking support, etc. It should be labeled kde 4.0 in my opinion.
In my opinion KDE is the best gui ever made. Not even MacOSX compares to it. Sure it has nice pictures and apple likes to have 96dpi screens so they look better then a pc, but pure functionality is with KDE.
If I enherieted a mac tomorrow, I would immediatly install fink and Xf86, and KDE. I am just more comfortable with it.
http://saveie6.com/
I did a quick redesign of your web site colour scheme by narrowing the hue separation and decreasing the contrast somewhat. I posted the modified stylesheet here if you're interested.
I tried to make your site less startling and easier to read, while retaining the overall feel.
Cheers,
Odie
...ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
I've been running kde since 3.0 up to 3.21. I'm really frustrated how long it takes windows to pop up, browser, file manager, a friggin text editor, console... Everyone said the new one is so much faster, it's driving me insane, what's taking so long for some of these little apps to start up.
/w Eterm and I'm much happier with the responsiveness of my system.
:-P
I really like how far kde has come as far as usability and features, but it seems like it's a big resource hog too. I just jumped back onto Enlightenment
I'm still using KDE apps under E, they seem to not take any longer to load, but my desktop as a whole feels a million times more responsive so I think I'll stick with it. I don't really need the kicker or the systray...
Who would of thought I'd be referring to Enlightenment as a lightweight, snappy environment to be running in
I'll probably just hold here for E17. What was I thinking leaving Enlightenment... Doh... stupid, stupid me...
As the mods to the parent post illustrates, when people who have legitimate grievances and complaints with the usability of desktop linux get attacked by the linux faithful and get modded as flamebait,
His grievances may or may not be legitimate. But he didn't limit himself to uttering "grievances" about KDE, he gave an unfounded and bogus technical analysis of the problem.
He may not be able to cut-and-paste what he likes, and his KDE desktop may crawl like a snail, but that is not due to X11 and it won't get fixed by replacing X11 with anything else.
And because people have to listen to that kind of uninformed, misguided whining from people like you and him again and again, people are getting tired of it, hence the "troll" and "flamebait" rating. If you don't like KDE, complain to the KDE developers, don't make silly statements about X11.
Don't you people have other things to say than:
<stereotype>
Oh, here goes my karma but anyway.
I'm actually a big Linux user/linux zealot (whatever) but i see a lot of problems that has to be solved if Linux is going to hit the big market....
</stereotype>
And so on...
It's getting quite repetetive seeing people say the same thing over and over again.
I couldn't come up with any better sign....
Checkinstall also handles vanilla .tgz packages, so you can add Slackware to that list.
===---===
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
Or maybe not. Dunno. You could try formatting your text in paragraphs if you intend someone to read it.
Linux has been ready for the desktop since 2091....
Only one century off...
At the rate Linux is progressing and innovating, it should be ready to replace all proprietary systems as the major desktop system in 2091.
- Your Headline Reader Has Been Banned
- You May Only Load Headlines Every 30 Minutes
- In 72 Hours, Your Ban Will Be Lifted
It's quite entertaining to see these messages flowing across the ticker.Of course, this could just as easily be a slashdot problem :-)
Command attempted to use minibuffer while in minibuffer
Well the best way is to have error detection right next to the code that does the work, the lower the better. Most code is divied up into functional blocks that do specific tasks e.g. open file, read stream. For example there's the open file function. Now that will have lower level code to deal with the fact that the file could be local, or remote. In all cases there are places that there could be a failure. e.g. communications failure, bad HD. etc. If there's a communications failure then the code could figure out what the nature of this failure is and propogate the reason why back up the chain. Better error messages result from better information coming up from the true source of the failure.
Y'know, your spelling is usually good, but you need to get some grammar lessons. 'your' needs to be replaced with 'you're', but the main thing wrong with your post is... THE ABSENCE OF COMMAS! Well, you have one, but that doesn't really count.
It's hard to understand sentences without proper structure.
> No wonder that the majority has chosen to speak Mandarin. ... while you still have time.
I assure it's much easier than you think.
Alternatively, learn Mandarin.
"2.4. Requesting a Selection"
"A client that wishes to obtain the value of a selection in a particular form (the requestor) issues a ConvertSelection request,
"2.6.2. Target Atoms"
"The atom that a requestor supplies as the target of a ConvertSelection request determines the form of the data supplied. The set of such atoms is extensible, but a generally accepted base set of target atoms is needed.
ADOBE_PORTABLE_DOCUMENT_FORMAT
APPLE_PICT
BITMAP
(etc...)
Now to prove that this does actually work I did the following: I opened a blank document in Kword (v 1.1.92), then I did Insert->Picture and inserted a
So now, we need to gather up a common table of data type atoms (larger than the table in the aformentioned ICCCM spec), and applications need to support conversions to useful data types. E.g. give font and style information along with text selections!!
The technology is there, it's not X11's fault.
Video playback is the big kicker for me in linux, too - especially as I have old hardware which I can't replace.
A lot of the performance issues in video playback come from the player having to scale the video to your screen resolution. Unless you're using the right drivers for your video card, this is done in software, and eats cpu time like nothing else.
It's a dirty hack, but if you change down to a screenmode which is close to the encoded horizontal resolution of your video clip and scale to fit, or just watch it at normal resolution, you'll get fast, crisp fullscreen playback with properly synched sound every time - barring badly encoded video files or pre-1996 hardware. I guess you could also script this into a wrapper which detects the size of the file you're playing, restarts the X server and calls mplayer to play the file with your specified options, but I've neither the talent nor the inclination to do it...
This is the issue I'd most like resolved - proper hardware video support. And I mean PROPER support, with free or at least open source drivers. I can't count the number of times I've failed to get those damn nvidia drivers working...
L
I disagree with you there, if the user has to go searching a help file to get up to speed on an app, that's when it "starts to blow chunks big time". Users don't read help files to get "up to speed" on software. They use the app, and if it's not intuitive enough to at least start drawing/writing/playing/whatever then they're going to go onto something else (or go back to what they were using before).
The help file isn't there to teach a new user how to use an application--that's what the GUI is for! The help file is there to help folks who have a basic understanding of the application get the most out of it.
I'll certainly agree that help files are lacking in most FS/OSS that's out there, but it's improving the interfaces by providing a consistent and predictable GUI, that will impact new users the most. (Which explains the major goals of KDE and Gnome.)
The most likely reason is because English is written horizontally, from right-to-left. Our brains are trained to read rows of text, and so it's easier for our eyes to track information that's horizontal.
This, IIRC, is an issue for internationalization, as many dialects are written right-to-left, and (most/all?) Asian dialects are triditionally written in columns.
There, they don't talk to each other when copying and pasting HTML (middle mouse or CTRL-C/V). Farking pain in the ass.
You've got to be kidding. Fonts look at least as nice under a modern system as they do on a Windows box -- good fonts (like Vera) are finally included, and the rendering and antialiasing is certainly on par with any other rendering system I've seen.
They indeed look crap'ish.
1: Users are forced to use antialiasing, or the fonts look like haywire.
2: If antialiased, they look fat and unreadable UNLESS you have a version of freetype and whatever fontserver you use, compiled *with the patentet hinting technology turned ON*. There's your headache.
1: Users are forced to use antialiasing, or the fonts look like haywire.
I've no idea what "haywire" means. They will certainly look jaggy -- such is life without antialiasing. The same thing will happen with the Windows font renderer with aa text disabled.
2: If antialiased, they look fat and unreadable UNLESS you have a version of freetype and whatever fontserver you use, compiled *with the patentet hinting technology turned ON*.
(a) Most current apps use Xft and thus client-side font rendering, making poking at the fontserver unnecessary.
(b) Would you happen to provide the name of the font that looks "fat"? Does the following image (all lines generated using the autohinter) look "fat" to you? (note: image produced without using subpixel rendering, so if you're viewing this on an LCD, it won't look as nice as it could). This is a bit older (freetype 2.1.4 rather than current), but it shouldn't be too old to be roughly on top of things.
May we never see th
- apt-get install kde x-window-system
- Quit bitching about how hard it is to install things in Linux.
That's straight out of the Debian installation doc. RedHat and Slackware actually make it even easier (wish Deb would take the hint on that one). Contrast that with Win2K, which I couldn't even get to install on my home-built machine after any amount of tinkering. I was gonna make a dual-booter but I gave up in disgust and returned Windows to the store. Linux installed on the first try.I'm not sure what amazes me more: how hard it is to install Windows, or how many people actually think Linux is hard to install.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
YHBT.
YHL.
HAND.
I like how the fact that your post got modded up means suddenly mine started getting modded down, as though yours invalidated mine.
I'm happy to hear Fedora loaded up your printer correctly. There are thousands upon thousands of devices it won't load up. It's not some sort of secret that Linux's hardware support isn't as wide as Windows at this point in time.
Using GRUB won't solve a thing when I can't even get a Linux CD to boot from the machine - including Knoppix.
Sorry, I'm sure you've checked everything, but it just baffles me that Knopp wouldn't take. Knopp seems to detect everything.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
Your post got modded down because it was uninsightful, inflammatory and just plain wrong--in other words, it has all the earmarks of a troll post. But of course either you're too stupid to figure that out, or you're trying to hoodwink some gullible moderators. If it's the former, then I guess willful stupidity is a bitch, eh? Yet you don't post a single device that it fails to load, since you've never tried it and you just love to speak from a position of false authority. Go back to your hole, troll.
It's not that it won't take, it just won't boot. And yes, it's set to boot from CDs fine because my Win XP and Win 2k3 Server CDs boot fine. It's a pretty straight-forward P4 2.6 HT running on a high-end Gigabyte board. Unless the current versions of the linux bootloaders (plural) have serious issues with SATA drives, I can't see where the problem is at. No doubt it's a BIOS setting somewhere... I just haven't found the time to go fishing for it yet...
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
what crappy non-intuitive tools. until Linux has apps like Windows or Mac, that work just as easily and cover the same range of equipment, i don't want to hear about usability.
and before all the geeks come back with RTFM, and newbie insults, if i have to RTFM then you made it to difficult. i rarely have to read anything on windows or mac.
and that's the way it should be. no product ever conquered a market by trying to convince the customers there expectations were wrong. products conquer markets by meeting and exceeding those expectations.
and linux is far from that, but it is getting a lot better.