I disagree. Knowing that the "File" menu is where to go to save something makes it that much easier. Knowing that the "print" option is there helps too. That's why all major OS's provide design guidelines to simplify the interface for the user. Consistency is very important especially for training new users.
We -- and I think I speak for the majority of Linux users here -- don't want binary drivers in Linux. You can't fix a binary driver, nor can you make sure it's not doing something evil. You can't migrate the code to future versions as the kernel is modified. You can't optimize it. We don't want an endless stream of support for old pieces of hardware, or a fixed-in-time ABI that keeps things from maturing. An ABI freezes progress.
Part of the open source movement is transparency with code, and you certainly don't get there with binary drivers.
What happens when the vendor goes out of business, or decides not to continue support for your device for whatever reason? Where is your support then? Tech vendors die or are absorbed all the time. Do you want to be prevented from upgrading your system because the closed-source, binary driver cannot be updated? With an open-source driver anybody anywhere in the world can continue working on it. That's a tremendous amount of added value.
The only reason we don't have drivers for some pieces of hardware is the unwillingness of certain manufacturers to cooperate -- they hide behind binaries and refuse to work with the community. Only with binary drivers can a vendor decide to cripple the devices we bought just because we changed OS's.
Creative lost a customer today with this behavior.
The primary role of an OS is to run applications. So yes, application performance should be by far the most important feature of any new OS. Stability should be second. After all, you can't use it if it's flaking out on you or requiring updates all the time.
An OS that runs applications slower, takes more resources to run the same application, or is more crash-prone is seen as a step backwards by most people. Windows is still an outdated rat's nest of code that grows with each release. It's going to take major refactoring -- and probably another generation of people at Microsoft to bring some fresh thought to their processes and clean up this mess.
For the most obvious:
Why can't we copy a bunch of files and have it resume where it left off if it gets interrupted?
Where's the "real" scheduler, something dependable like cron? AT doesn't work for all tasks and often requires an interactive session i.e. you have to be logged on. No, even though I'm a software developer by trade, I shouldn't have to write software to schedule a program, that's an OS' job.
Why does Windows allow a bad driver to interrupt the system? This is especially stupid since Windows Update frequently lists "updated" drivers that either aren't compatible or older versions.
Why does it take significantly longer to transfer a file from one Windows machine to another than modern protocols, say rsync? Even FTP is faster.
Real journaling is commonplace on almost every other platform. When will Windows get it -- and I don't mean the half-assed NTFS "journal". Checking disks is yesterday's problem.
Why can't I move a file while it's downloading, or rename it, or play it (if it's a streaming media file) like I can on a Mac? Even OS9 could do this easily.
What is it with the clunky filename extension model? How outdated. NTFS streams should have been used for this crap all along. Or use a magic packet at the beginning of each file. Whatever, but file extensions are ambiguous or undefined in a lot of cases.
I still can't tag files (part of Mac OS and Linux for more than 10 years). I work on a lot of projects and would like to tag similar files without having to store them in the same folder(s). Because I work with a large number of files that may be part of multiple projects this feature is a real PIA. Aliases are a poor solution.
I can't edit MP3 tags without the song skipping during playback (I have an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ and yes it skips when editing tags).
Why does the OS leave temp files all over the place, forcing me to manually clean them up?
How about NTFS streams -- why can't I edit those easily since the functionality for alternate streams has existed for over 10 years?
Why does a bad CD or DVD lock up the system as it's trying to be accessed?
Opening and closing files is a major part of an OS. This is progress? You can keep it. What has it been, 15+ years since 3.1? These are just simple file operations part of any OS. Windows falls on its face with all of them.
The person who got a job at IBM was double-certified in Oracle and SQL Server, I did not have his degree of knowledge at that time. He was able to risk all and move out of state because he didn't have the responsibilities I did. Certs != knowledge. They're not very good indicators of skill as I've interviewed several candidates lately who supposedly had certs but couldn't write a SQL statement or answer a multiple-choice question.
The guy who landed the job as VP of MIS already had that type of experience. I did not.
You can call it whatever you want, I can tell you aren't American (which isn't a bad thing) and as such probably have no idea what things were like over here. During this time things got really bad for American workers due to outsourcing and our IT economy is still in recovery. Most of our programming jobs go to India, former Soviet countries, and the 'Stans. In the Florida area things were particularly bad with the closing or downsizing of major corporations including IBM's research center in Boca and the Grumman closing in the county I lived. These people weren't uneducated. One of the former Help Desk crew landed a job at a local medical provider but it was an entry-level job and the pay was very low. I had friends at 2 hospitals in different counties and although I could get an interview nothing nice was available.
I got some really good experience out of the deal, despite being treated unfairly. I took the lower risk and ended up with a win, sometimes it doesn't work that way. I made those negatives into positives and am quite happy in my current position. I made it through OK, despite having some debt and stressful times. I learned what NOT to do in a lot of situations.
Guess what? Now I'm supervising people and have only VP's and a CEO that outranks me. I get along with them just fine and have a lot of room. I have my own office with ability to assign tasks to personnel as necessary. I work unsupervised; no one in my office is superior to me. I have some discretionary spending ability. I make proposals and help choose which software and hardware to use. I help create departmental and corporate policy. Things have come full-circle. I am very happy that I was fired from the other job, I would not be where I am today. If they had chosen to give me a measly raise every year I may still be there long after I had learned everything I could have learned. I'm not upset simply because it all worked in my favor in the end.
On the other hand, you sound really bitter, maybe it didn't work out so well for you. Did you want a hug?
This occurred in Florida a couple of years after the year-2000 craze, when we had IT guys working at K-Mart. This area was hit particularly hard with the loss of Grumman, IBM and many smaller firms.
I never said I wasn't looking for another job the entire time. How do you think I knew there weren't many jobs in my areas of expertise and salary range? Sounds like you have had the luxury of working only in metropolitan areas, you seem to know very little about how things work in more rural areas. "The" local placement agency and 2 of the placement agencies in the next town were working for this company and I was afraid my skills would be found by my employer -- I have a resume that is easily identifiable by those who know me. So I was afraid to go to a recruiter and post my resume for everyone to see. I went on my own time to the most obvious places -- large banks, hospitals, FPL, etc with no luck. When I interviewed they were either not paying enough or only had entry-level jobs available.
The initial ones who were fired were not working long hours. Not sure where you came to that conclusion. I was speaking for myself. If anything their firings underlined the need to go beyond what was required to keep my job. They were fired before the project was underway.
In regards to the "Disemployment queue", after I was fired I filed for unemployment, but the paltry sum it gave was a teensy fraction of what I made previously. I couldn't pay the mortgage on it and had to borrow money. BTW, I had a "regular" house in a zero-lot-line community, hardly a mansion. In this region of FL, homes and rent are very expensive.
When I was fired, I went to work for my parents in the insurance and securities industry. I studied and was certified. This wasn't a short process. Eventually one of the fired co-workers landed a VP of MIS job at another company and I was hired by him. I had to take a lower salary but felt the company gave me a strong growth opportunity. It happened to work in my favor. The point is I was forced to take action because I was fired, as opposed to quitting a job for an uncertainty. There's a big difference.
Perhaps you have never been married or had children to care for. Daddy doesn't jump ship because it's a little too stressful, or throw his job out knowing there are little to no job openings locally. It's easy to call people "stupid" while sitting your couch but a reasonable, responsible person would argue it's best to do things carefully and not take risks that can be avoided. With children you also need to promote as stable an environment as possible. When looking for a job you have many more factors to consider, such as whether you have to move, the schools, etc. It's not as simple as picking up and relocating. And unemployment in America DOES NOT PAY if you quit your job. My wife left the bank during this time period to spend more time with our children and we found this out the hard way.
The DBA that was fired? He eventually moved to Atlanta and went to work for IBM. Also out-of-state. But that happened after a very long search. I think he had some money saved up, he had no children and didn't own his home so things were a bit simpler.
The difference now? I would promote my resume and also look for work in other fields. This may have involved moving to a different career path.
Sometimes you're in a situation where you just don't have a choice, you have to stay late and do the work or run the risk of being fired. If you're married or have children (i.e. responsibilities for anyone other than yourself) it's more difficult too. Case in point...
I worked for a large US trucking company. When I first started I was respected, trained in areas I needed, and kept busy but not overwhelmed with work. I worked with the Sales and Accounting VP's regularly. It was very satisfying to know I was making a difference and was appreciated. Our department had about 15 full-time employees (all US citizens) as well as a couple of American contractors to help support some of the legacy software we were using. There were 2 managers and we all worked together to do what was needed, a very flat infrastructure. There were no real fires to put out, we kept 300+ employees relatively happy. Life was very good.
One day the VP of MIS left abruptly and a manager from accounting was promoted to VP. All was fine for a short time, then several employees from our group were terminated unexpectedly. They were there in the morning but gone after lunch, no notice, no announcement, nothing. Meanwhile the contractors were still there. One of the "Access developers" who didn't know much about Access was promoted to manager. The 3 managers met in a very secretive fashion -- doors closed while in the office, out-of-office meetings in a hotel, etc -- for weeks. They wouldn't tell the rest of us what was happening which given the unexpected terminations made the situation very tense.
The new VP called us to a mandatory meeting and told us we would be rewriting all the software from scratch in VB6 -- basically 7 different systems on disparate platforms would be discontinued. (Sounds interesting, right? I love a challenge!) But a large part of the meeting was spent warning us that we would either "get on board" and spend WHATEVER time was necessary to hit our goal date or "hit the road". This was a new VP and we didn't know much about his style and what to expect.
Then all 3 managers -- with little or no programming experience -- were sent to some "advanced" VB training class.
Almost immediately more than 8 different H1B workers were hired (although not all at the same time) at a rate of $60 per hour each. Another non-native was hired as the DBA at $120 an hour, even though he was not certified in Oracle. (How do I know their wages? They printed their timesheets on the shared network printer and let them stay there for hours, sometimes overnight.) Our existing DBA, certified in both Oracle and SQL Server, had already planned his wedding and arranged for time off before the announcement. He left with the assurance his spot would be reserved only to find it was in fact no longer available upon his scheduled return. The new development was shifted to the H1B developers and the regular employees started dropping off. The $120 per hour DBA started spending nights at work.
HelpDesk staff turned over at least twice. When people were terminated their positions were not filled, just replaced by generic H1B's with no title. 2 of the managers met the H1B's and DBA for social engagements regularly, which was simple for them because none were married; the one manager that had children just sent them to his mother's anytime he wanted to party. Watching people come and go gives you an incredible incentive to keep your head down and do your job, to put in the extra hours so your modules succeed and you aren't viewed as an "extra". By this time I already felt like an outsider.
At the time the project had basically ended, the company had retained 2 of the 3 managers and the rest of the crew were H1B's. The VP received a fat bonus (we heard through the grapevine) and thanked us as a side note during a departmental meeting. The managers received bonuses. The project took more than 2 years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I got my 1.5%-3% raise eac
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I disagree. Knowing that the "File" menu is where to go to save something makes it that much easier. Knowing that the "print" option is there helps too. That's why all major OS's provide design guidelines to simplify the interface for the user. Consistency is very important especially for training new users.
Wow, I hadn't thought of GEOS in a long time. I remember using a desktop publishing program for it, it was remarkable!
Does this mean I can now kill a Linux system's performance and stability with the DRM sh*t too? W00t!
We -- and I think I speak for the majority of Linux users here -- don't want binary drivers in Linux. You can't fix a binary driver, nor can you make sure it's not doing something evil. You can't migrate the code to future versions as the kernel is modified. You can't optimize it. We don't want an endless stream of support for old pieces of hardware, or a fixed-in-time ABI that keeps things from maturing. An ABI freezes progress.
Part of the open source movement is transparency with code, and you certainly don't get there with binary drivers.
What happens when the vendor goes out of business, or decides not to continue support for your device for whatever reason? Where is your support then? Tech vendors die or are absorbed all the time. Do you want to be prevented from upgrading your system because the closed-source, binary driver cannot be updated? With an open-source driver anybody anywhere in the world can continue working on it. That's a tremendous amount of added value.
The only reason we don't have drivers for some pieces of hardware is the unwillingness of certain manufacturers to cooperate -- they hide behind binaries and refuse to work with the community. Only with binary drivers can a vendor decide to cripple the devices we bought just because we changed OS's.
Creative lost a customer today with this behavior.
Tom Lehrer? Wow, haven't heard that in awhile.
The primary role of an OS is to run applications. So yes, application performance should be by far the most important feature of any new OS. Stability should be second. After all, you can't use it if it's flaking out on you or requiring updates all the time.
An OS that runs applications slower, takes more resources to run the same application, or is more crash-prone is seen as a step backwards by most people. Windows is still an outdated rat's nest of code that grows with each release. It's going to take major refactoring -- and probably another generation of people at Microsoft to bring some fresh thought to their processes and clean up this mess.
For the most obvious:
Opening and closing files is a major part of an OS. This is progress? You can keep it. What has it been, 15+ years since 3.1? These are just simple file operations part of any OS. Windows falls on its face with all of them.
The person who got a job at IBM was double-certified in Oracle and SQL Server, I did not have his degree of knowledge at that time. He was able to risk all and move out of state because he didn't have the responsibilities I did. Certs != knowledge. They're not very good indicators of skill as I've interviewed several candidates lately who supposedly had certs but couldn't write a SQL statement or answer a multiple-choice question.
The guy who landed the job as VP of MIS already had that type of experience. I did not.
You can call it whatever you want, I can tell you aren't American (which isn't a bad thing) and as such probably have no idea what things were like over here. During this time things got really bad for American workers due to outsourcing and our IT economy is still in recovery. Most of our programming jobs go to India, former Soviet countries, and the 'Stans. In the Florida area things were particularly bad with the closing or downsizing of major corporations including IBM's research center in Boca and the Grumman closing in the county I lived. These people weren't uneducated. One of the former Help Desk crew landed a job at a local medical provider but it was an entry-level job and the pay was very low. I had friends at 2 hospitals in different counties and although I could get an interview nothing nice was available.
I got some really good experience out of the deal, despite being treated unfairly. I took the lower risk and ended up with a win, sometimes it doesn't work that way. I made those negatives into positives and am quite happy in my current position. I made it through OK, despite having some debt and stressful times. I learned what NOT to do in a lot of situations.
Guess what? Now I'm supervising people and have only VP's and a CEO that outranks me. I get along with them just fine and have a lot of room. I have my own office with ability to assign tasks to personnel as necessary. I work unsupervised; no one in my office is superior to me. I have some discretionary spending ability. I make proposals and help choose which software and hardware to use. I help create departmental and corporate policy. Things have come full-circle. I am very happy that I was fired from the other job, I would not be where I am today. If they had chosen to give me a measly raise every year I may still be there long after I had learned everything I could have learned. I'm not upset simply because it all worked in my favor in the end.
On the other hand, you sound really bitter, maybe it didn't work out so well for you. Did you want a hug?
This occurred in Florida a couple of years after the year-2000 craze, when we had IT guys working at K-Mart. This area was hit particularly hard with the loss of Grumman, IBM and many smaller firms.
I never said I wasn't looking for another job the entire time. How do you think I knew there weren't many jobs in my areas of expertise and salary range? Sounds like you have had the luxury of working only in metropolitan areas, you seem to know very little about how things work in more rural areas. "The" local placement agency and 2 of the placement agencies in the next town were working for this company and I was afraid my skills would be found by my employer -- I have a resume that is easily identifiable by those who know me. So I was afraid to go to a recruiter and post my resume for everyone to see. I went on my own time to the most obvious places -- large banks, hospitals, FPL, etc with no luck. When I interviewed they were either not paying enough or only had entry-level jobs available.
The initial ones who were fired were not working long hours. Not sure where you came to that conclusion. I was speaking for myself. If anything their firings underlined the need to go beyond what was required to keep my job. They were fired before the project was underway.
In regards to the "Disemployment queue", after I was fired I filed for unemployment, but the paltry sum it gave was a teensy fraction of what I made previously. I couldn't pay the mortgage on it and had to borrow money. BTW, I had a "regular" house in a zero-lot-line community, hardly a mansion. In this region of FL, homes and rent are very expensive.
When I was fired, I went to work for my parents in the insurance and securities industry. I studied and was certified. This wasn't a short process. Eventually one of the fired co-workers landed a VP of MIS job at another company and I was hired by him. I had to take a lower salary but felt the company gave me a strong growth opportunity. It happened to work in my favor. The point is I was forced to take action because I was fired, as opposed to quitting a job for an uncertainty. There's a big difference.
Perhaps you have never been married or had children to care for. Daddy doesn't jump ship because it's a little too stressful, or throw his job out knowing there are little to no job openings locally. It's easy to call people "stupid" while sitting your couch but a reasonable, responsible person would argue it's best to do things carefully and not take risks that can be avoided. With children you also need to promote as stable an environment as possible. When looking for a job you have many more factors to consider, such as whether you have to move, the schools, etc. It's not as simple as picking up and relocating. And unemployment in America DOES NOT PAY if you quit your job. My wife left the bank during this time period to spend more time with our children and we found this out the hard way.
The DBA that was fired? He eventually moved to Atlanta and went to work for IBM. Also out-of-state. But that happened after a very long search. I think he had some money saved up, he had no children and didn't own his home so things were a bit simpler.
The difference now? I would promote my resume and also look for work in other fields. This may have involved moving to a different career path.
Have a sip of tea, you sound like you need it.
I cry foul.
Sometimes you're in a situation where you just don't have a choice, you have to stay late and do the work or run the risk of being fired. If you're married or have children (i.e. responsibilities for anyone other than yourself) it's more difficult too. Case in point...
I worked for a large US trucking company. When I first started I was respected, trained in areas I needed, and kept busy but not overwhelmed with work. I worked with the Sales and Accounting VP's regularly. It was very satisfying to know I was making a difference and was appreciated. Our department had about 15 full-time employees (all US citizens) as well as a couple of American contractors to help support some of the legacy software we were using. There were 2 managers and we all worked together to do what was needed, a very flat infrastructure. There were no real fires to put out, we kept 300+ employees relatively happy. Life was very good.
One day the VP of MIS left abruptly and a manager from accounting was promoted to VP. All was fine for a short time, then several employees from our group were terminated unexpectedly. They were there in the morning but gone after lunch, no notice, no announcement, nothing. Meanwhile the contractors were still there. One of the "Access developers" who didn't know much about Access was promoted to manager. The 3 managers met in a very secretive fashion -- doors closed while in the office, out-of-office meetings in a hotel, etc -- for weeks. They wouldn't tell the rest of us what was happening which given the unexpected terminations made the situation very tense.
The new VP called us to a mandatory meeting and told us we would be rewriting all the software from scratch in VB6 -- basically 7 different systems on disparate platforms would be discontinued. (Sounds interesting, right? I love a challenge!) But a large part of the meeting was spent warning us that we would either "get on board" and spend WHATEVER time was necessary to hit our goal date or "hit the road". This was a new VP and we didn't know much about his style and what to expect.
Then all 3 managers -- with little or no programming experience -- were sent to some "advanced" VB training class.
Almost immediately more than 8 different H1B workers were hired (although not all at the same time) at a rate of $60 per hour each. Another non-native was hired as the DBA at $120 an hour, even though he was not certified in Oracle. (How do I know their wages? They printed their timesheets on the shared network printer and let them stay there for hours, sometimes overnight.) Our existing DBA, certified in both Oracle and SQL Server, had already planned his wedding and arranged for time off before the announcement. He left with the assurance his spot would be reserved only to find it was in fact no longer available upon his scheduled return. The new development was shifted to the H1B developers and the regular employees started dropping off. The $120 per hour DBA started spending nights at work.
HelpDesk staff turned over at least twice. When people were terminated their positions were not filled, just replaced by generic H1B's with no title. 2 of the managers met the H1B's and DBA for social engagements regularly, which was simple for them because none were married; the one manager that had children just sent them to his mother's anytime he wanted to party. Watching people come and go gives you an incredible incentive to keep your head down and do your job, to put in the extra hours so your modules succeed and you aren't viewed as an "extra". By this time I already felt like an outsider.
At the time the project had basically ended, the company had retained 2 of the 3 managers and the rest of the crew were H1B's. The VP received a fat bonus (we heard through the grapevine) and thanked us as a side note during a departmental meeting. The managers received bonuses. The project took more than 2 years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I got my 1.5%-3% raise eac