Especially interesting is, near the bottom, the ability to allow a virtual upgrade of your existing system, without actually touching your existing system. If all goes smoothly, you know you're good to upgrade. If anything breaks, you just reboot into your unmolested Dapper install.
Look, you bought a stripped-down version of Xandros for an ultra-portable device, you shouldn't expect it to work like a desktop OS. You don't expect WinCE to run all of your Windows apps, do you? Well the OS that comes with the EEE PC is essentially" XandrosCE". I'm sorry your Linux experience hasn't been as positive as you had expected, but your expectations for it are way above your expectations for those "commercial OSes". For a good measure get a recent version of Ubuntu or Fedora, install it on a somewhat recent desktop or laptop (not a EEE, Classmate or Nokia tablet), and you will see that things are much better at "just working", and that more software is available for easy installation.
How many different linux os's are there? None, just like there are no Mach or NT OS's out there. Windows is an OS, OS X is an OS, Ubuntu is an OS, Fedora is an OS, Suse is an OS, Linspire is an OS.
Now think about it like this: Write one driver for windows, one driver for OS X, then just one driver that covers all of those others.
Or how about software: Write one version for Windows, one version for OS X, then just one version that covers all those others? Even if you have to account for differences between Ubuntu and Fedora, they are minuscule compared to the differences you face between Windows and OS X.
If it was indeed thier plan all along like a developer in that thread claims then they haven't done a very good job of communicating this vital point to thier userbase and I don't think they have officially committed to doing it It has been their claim since 6.06 was released. 8.04 is only 2 months into development, they've only just finished their import from Debian, they haven't even been working on the new things they will be putting in themselves. Like I said, the upgrade path will be started in Febuary, so expect LTS->LTS upgrade instructions about that time.
Regardless of that detail though it is IMO unwise to trust an organisation to deliver in ways they have never delivered before. It is even more unwise to trust promises of a 5 year support lifetime from a company that is less than 4 years old. Fair enough, but it's equally unfair to criticize an organization before they have actually done the thing you are criticizing. In this case, complain that an LTS->LTS upgrade isn't easy enough _after_ the second LTS is actually available to upgrade to.
IMO the big test for ubuntu will be the wake of the release of 10.04 lts. They will then have to support 3 lts releases (dapper on servers only) and two non LTS releases at the same time. If they can support them all to an acceptable level then thier LTS plan will have been a success. Until then it must be regarded as an untested plan. I agree, I also suspect this is going to be difficult for them to accomplish, as dapper shipped with a GPLv2 Samba, and I don't know if security patches put into GPLv3 Samba could be legally applied to GPLv2 code. I would hope that the Samba team would make the patch available under both licenses, but if not Ubuntu will either have to re-create the fixes themselves, or leave older systems unpatched. Presumably they would want to supply a fix one way or another, but it could make supporting such older system much harder than they originally anticipated.
I assume he's talking more about how all the Apple apps work together, like how iPhoto and iMovie show you your iTunes playlist when you want to add music to a slideshow or movie. Interesting, I'm not sure if there there is an equivalent to that in the Linux world, maybe in KDE. Rythmbox stores all it's metadata in XML files too, so there isn't anything stopping a third party app from using that either. I think Amarok uses a database, like postgres or sqlite, still no reason a third party app couldn't use it. F-spot also stores is metadata in an sqlite database, or extended attributes in the file system, which third party apps can and do use. The only thing missing is an iMovie like "standard" for Gnome and KDE, there are several contenders, but no clear favorite.
Perhaps it's time for an additional Freedesktop specification for a file metadata database, that could make for some interesting app integration.
That sure puts to shame Linux which also supports php, ryhtmbox which stores play-lists in m3u and shoutcast files, F-Spot which always supported plugins, and other aspects of Gnome, KDE or XFCE which support plugins.
I am enlightened.
Of course, none of your examples actually shows two competing non-Apple media players transparently sharing internal data.
I'd like to see some organization standards. Like for my Mp3's things should go seamlessly between amarok, rythembox, etc and photos, and movies. I think FOSS is really behind Apple in this area. Really, Apple lets you transfer your MP3 playlists and metadata between two music player written in two different toolkits, by two different companies, neither of them Apple? The same for photos and movies?
Most Linux 3D desktops actually relieve your CPU of some work. In a non-accelerated desktop your CPU is responsible for all of X's calculations. Composited window managers shift some of that burden to your GPU, which is better at that kind of thing anyway. I see no performance penalty from running Compiz on my box, and the window manager is actually _more_ responsive than metacity, especially during CPU intensive processes. And I only have a GeForce3, the bare minimum according to Compiz's specs (though I've also run it on a GeForce2, there were some issues with drop-shadows).
Also afaict they haven't clearly committed to an easy upgrade path from one LTS release to the next That is their plan: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=591440 They aren't far enough along in the development of 8.04 to have developed a proper upgrade path yet (probably sometime in Febuary), but it is their intention to allow LTS->LTS upgrades, without having to hit every release in between.
Since temperature is a measure of the average energy of the particles in a system, I think we can define an absolute temperature of a system at given volume.
As particles increase in speed, they increase in mass as well. If kept within a constant volume, that mass will eventually be dense enough to form an event horizon around itself. Now as the energy of the particles continues to increase you will get a proportional increase in the radius of the event horizon, and therefore the effective volume of the system.
Now I don't have all the numbers and equations, but it seems to me that the "absolute temperature" of a volume of space would be equal to the amount of energy required to create an event horizon of that size.
I saw about a 30% speed improvement in FF3 over FF2 on my box. I also did not see any performance decrease in the "access" test like the author did, so maybe it was a fluke on his end. IE6 did moderately worse than FF2, just like in the article it did horribly in the "strings" test.
Supposedly Photoshop CS2 works well under Wine 0.9.46 or later. I usually add the WineHQ repos under Ubuntu, so I get updates from them instead of waiting for Canonical to repackage it. You should also try Krita, the KOffice image editor. Also be sure to give Gimp 2.4 a try, there have been many improvements over 2.2.
However, as with all open source projects, alternatives are available - Kubuntu, for example, or simply 'apt-get install kde'. For those interested, the way to get proper KDE support on a standard Ubuntu install is "sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop". This will include not only KDE, but also the standard Kubuntu applications and artwork.
Yes, but is VMWare 5.5 supported on the version of Ubuntu you are running?
The reason you have to recompile is probably because VMWare requires some GPL'd code (Linux headers) be compiled into their product. This either means that they must make their entire product GPL'd to ship it, or require that you (the user) compile the GPL'd code into their product. Guess which route they took? Since Linux has no stable ABI, any program that uses the Linux headers (usually drivers) must be recompiled whenever the kernel is updated.
According to Sun, most phone manufacturers will use a proprietary implementation of JavaME, because it's implementation is highly dependent on the hardware itself, unlike the more generic JavaSE and JavaEE. This is also why PhoneME is GPL, not LGPL.
But as for only being able to run GPL'd applications, that's not true. The GPL only restricts distribution, not use, so you can't distribute a non-GPL'd program that is linked with PhoneME classes. Since every implementation of JavaME will use the same namespaces, you should be able to compile your JavaME program against any implementation of JavaME, and then run it without problem (technical or legal) on PhoneME. You can't distribute PhoneME linked to your program, but you can distribute your program by itself.
As someone who has worked with JMF, I can tell you that no amount of "cleaning up" would make it feasible for someone developing an applet or application that just needs to play a media file. You also wouldn't want to load the entire JMF just to play a file. I think it's better to make light-weight media widgets, and only employ the JMF if you are going to need more control over editing and playback. After all, there are image widgets, not image manipulation frameworks that you have to extend just to put an icon in your application window.
Sun has or is in the process of open-sourcing their implementations of JavaSE, JavaME and JavaEE, as well as their JVM and Java compiler.
Sun does make money licensing their Java code to third parties, but that isn't a requirement for providing Java support. The Java language specification is freely available, anybody can create their own implementation, but for most companies it is cheaper to reuse Sun's implementation than make their own. Sun even provides financial assistance for small businesses or open-source projects to take the Java compatibility test. Heck, they've even open-sources the test harness for the compatibility test.
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If you're interested, here is the spec for LTS->LTS upgrades, it is marked as an "Essential" blueprint for 8.04.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTSUpgrades
Especially interesting is, near the bottom, the ability to allow a virtual upgrade of your existing system, without actually touching your existing system. If all goes smoothly, you know you're good to upgrade. If anything breaks, you just reboot into your unmolested Dapper install.
Look, you bought a stripped-down version of Xandros for an ultra-portable device, you shouldn't expect it to work like a desktop OS. You don't expect WinCE to run all of your Windows apps, do you? Well the OS that comes with the EEE PC is essentially" XandrosCE". I'm sorry your Linux experience hasn't been as positive as you had expected, but your expectations for it are way above your expectations for those "commercial OSes". For a good measure get a recent version of Ubuntu or Fedora, install it on a somewhat recent desktop or laptop (not a EEE, Classmate or Nokia tablet), and you will see that things are much better at "just working", and that more software is available for easy installation.
Now think about it like this: Write one driver for windows, one driver for OS X, then just one driver that covers all of those others.
Or how about software: Write one version for Windows, one version for OS X, then just one version that covers all those others? Even if you have to account for differences between Ubuntu and Fedora, they are minuscule compared to the differences you face between Windows and OS X.
VRam mostly, though some chipsets use system memory for vram. My current compiz.real process is taking up 5.4Mb of memory.
Perhaps it's time for an additional Freedesktop specification for a file metadata database, that could make for some interesting app integration.
Yes...
and another for good measure. So Apple supports PHP, iTunes stores play-lists in an XML file, iPhoto now supports plugins, and so do other aspects of OS X.
Wow.
That sure puts to shame Linux which also supports php, ryhtmbox which stores play-lists in m3u and shoutcast files, F-Spot which always supported plugins, and other aspects of Gnome, KDE or XFCE which support plugins.
I am enlightened.
Of course, none of your examples actually shows two competing non-Apple media players transparently sharing internal data.
Most Linux 3D desktops actually relieve your CPU of some work. In a non-accelerated desktop your CPU is responsible for all of X's calculations. Composited window managers shift some of that burden to your GPU, which is better at that kind of thing anyway. I see no performance penalty from running Compiz on my box, and the window manager is actually _more_ responsive than metacity, especially during CPU intensive processes. And I only have a GeForce3, the bare minimum according to Compiz's specs (though I've also run it on a GeForce2, there were some issues with drop-shadows).
They aren't far enough along in the development of 8.04 to have developed a proper upgrade path yet (probably sometime in Febuary), but it is their intention to allow LTS->LTS upgrades, without having to hit every release in between.
Since temperature is a measure of the average energy of the particles in a system, I think we can define an absolute temperature of a system at given volume.
As particles increase in speed, they increase in mass as well. If kept within a constant volume, that mass will eventually be dense enough to form an event horizon around itself. Now as the energy of the particles continues to increase you will get a proportional increase in the radius of the event horizon, and therefore the effective volume of the system.
Now I don't have all the numbers and equations, but it seems to me that the "absolute temperature" of a volume of space would be equal to the amount of energy required to create an event horizon of that size.
I saw about a 30% speed improvement in FF3 over FF2 on my box. I also did not see any performance decrease in the "access" test like the author did, so maybe it was a fluke on his end. IE6 did moderately worse than FF2, just like in the article it did horribly in the "strings" test.
I just found you can switch back to the FF2-style URL bar. Go to about:config and set browser.urlbar.richResults=false
NASA: I just tried to launch OpenAres 1.1, but my rocket blew up!
RoxetMan: RTFM, noob!
Well technically Apollo 11 had more things go wrong than did Apollo 1, but guess which one I would have rather been on?
Supposedly Photoshop CS2 works well under Wine 0.9.46 or later. I usually add the WineHQ repos under Ubuntu, so I get updates from them instead of waiting for Canonical to repackage it. You should also try Krita, the KOffice image editor. Also be sure to give Gimp 2.4 a try, there have been many improvements over 2.2.
Then just run Debian.
Only Home Basic, and it'll be slow.
Yes, but is VMWare 5.5 supported on the version of Ubuntu you are running?
The reason you have to recompile is probably because VMWare requires some GPL'd code (Linux headers) be compiled into their product. This either means that they must make their entire product GPL'd to ship it, or require that you (the user) compile the GPL'd code into their product. Guess which route they took? Since Linux has no stable ABI, any program that uses the Linux headers (usually drivers) must be recompiled whenever the kernel is updated.
According to Sun, most phone manufacturers will use a proprietary implementation of JavaME, because it's implementation is highly dependent on the hardware itself, unlike the more generic JavaSE and JavaEE. This is also why PhoneME is GPL, not LGPL.
But as for only being able to run GPL'd applications, that's not true. The GPL only restricts distribution, not use, so you can't distribute a non-GPL'd program that is linked with PhoneME classes. Since every implementation of JavaME will use the same namespaces, you should be able to compile your JavaME program against any implementation of JavaME, and then run it without problem (technical or legal) on PhoneME. You can't distribute PhoneME linked to your program, but you can distribute your program by itself.
With a good Java platform, you can use Javascript, Groovy, Ruby, Python, and several others.
As someone who has worked with JMF, I can tell you that no amount of "cleaning up" would make it feasible for someone developing an applet or application that just needs to play a media file. You also wouldn't want to load the entire JMF just to play a file. I think it's better to make light-weight media widgets, and only employ the JMF if you are going to need more control over editing and playback. After all, there are image widgets, not image manipulation frameworks that you have to extend just to put an icon in your application window.
Sun has or is in the process of open-sourcing their implementations of JavaSE, JavaME and JavaEE, as well as their JVM and Java compiler.
Sun does make money licensing their Java code to third parties, but that isn't a requirement for providing Java support. The Java language specification is freely available, anybody can create their own implementation, but for most companies it is cheaper to reuse Sun's implementation than make their own. Sun even provides financial assistance for small businesses or open-source projects to take the Java compatibility test. Heck, they've even open-sources the test harness for the compatibility test.