Of course it is. Smalltalk is a live language. JP Morgan for instance is one of the largest users of Smalltalk.
There are companies today making a living out of writing software in Smalltalk. Even successful companies selling implementations of Smalltalk like Cincom.
Smalltalk is not a language from the past. It is the language of the future. Java held us back for years.
I was surprised, maybe shocked, by how much Smalltalk has contributed to the world[1], how far we have deviated from it[2], and how slowly we are converging to it again[3].
[1] object oriented programming, virtual machine, just-in-time compilation, test-driven development, Model-View-Controller design pattern, object databases [2] inventing problems by trying to coerce static typed programming languages to behave like dynamic ones (Java, Go, et cetera, I'm looking at you) [3] by slowly incorporating Smalltalk features into current popular programming languages. Ruby for instance is heavily based on Smalltalk.
I love KDE since 1.x. I've always hated GNOME since it was shipping with RH 5.2.
But I've been waiting for KDE and the whole Linux desktop experience to be good, and 11 years have passed.
Today, I have embraced Mac OS X for my personal desktop, and *love* it: I'm not looking back any more; I use OpenBSD for most of my servers of course; and for the PCs at work, I have succumbed to Ubuntu, a very customized Ubuntu that doesn't expose a whole desktop, but just a dock with only the applications the users need for work.
I fail to see why an easy to use desktop on Linux is needed any more, because all my three uses for a computer are already perfectly covered.
Not that I would reject using Linux as a desktop somewhere. Heck, I have used OpenBSD as a desktop. But just because I want to contribute to the project, or learn their internals. And for my users, it's better for them and for the company/institution that forget that they have a "Personal Computer": they don't; the machine in front of them is just a tool to get their job done. Then a whole desktop is overkill.
I would add "powerful" to your points (which I guess are limited to the desktop):
* Mac OS X: usable and powerful (great UI + great foundation) * Windows: just plain convenient, thanks to the size of the install base and people familiar to it * GNU/Linux: powerful, but not usable
Being said that, I'm actually using the three of them at work:
* GNU/Linux for the people that is responsible for a few and very specific tasks for which Ubuntu has been customized. * Windows for the yet-to-be-converted PC because of in-house systems or 3rd party software that require Windows and is pending of getting an alternative * Mac OS X for people that know better. Which means the IT department:)
C# and.NET are definitely MORE powerful than objective C in a general purpose sort of way (objective C might have more depth in specific targeted areas like GUI widgets, but the breadth of massive frameworks like C# and Java is truly vast)
Having more libraries doesn't make a language more powerful; in any case, it would make it more productive.
The hard link you have in your mind between Objective-C (or the libraries available to it, since you seem to interpret it as the same thing) and GUI widgets is just supported by your ignorance.
Besides, I don't get what's the big deal about learning Objective-C. It's a real C superset and heavily inspired by Smalltalk. Ruby programmers would feel at home. Who wouldn't like to think of Smalltalk or Ruby while writing real world solutions at close-to-the-metal speed.
I'm honestly surprised how ignorant and lazy the regular slashdotter has become with the years.
Any self-respected geek should be already keeping up to date with Apple advancements which are and will be impacting techology in the years to come.
If you people haven't noticed already, Apple has been consistently releasing libraries and server software as open source projects for the rest to pick up , use and modify, with liberal licenses.
A friend of mine used to say (can't remember exactly... paraphrasing:)
* Microsoft wants all software to be theirs * GNU wants all software to be free * BSD wants all software to be better
And releasing GCD, gentlemen, is another master stroke by Apple, just like WebKit, Bonjour, LLVM, the list goes on, to share knowledge and advance technology by merit, not by forcing it down your throat thanks to the monopoly you have been handed.
The term "block" is familiar to Ruby programmers. It's an old concept which Ruby has made easy to use and hence popular and actually useful.
And here's another lesson which OpenBSD, Apple and Ruby have been putting to work without you noticing guys: any technology that is difficult to use, no matter how good it is, will not be used if gets in your way; the technology must be easy to deploy/use and unobstrusive to be actually used and useful.
Just remember SELinux and how many people just disable it, no matter how good it is (which I don't think it is, but that's for another rant). Then compare it with the technology that OpenBSD has been implementing for memory protection which is unobstrusive and ready to use with no extra configuration. Same with Ruby blocks, which more programmers are using and a lot of software is benefitting from it now, even though higher order functions and closures have been around for ages.
Having Ruby-like blocks in C and Objective-C is so COOL, you must appreciate that if you think you're serious at programming. Apple has already submitted it to be a standard. I believe MacRuby will benefit from this too, which is Ruby written in Objective-C, which implements Ruby classes as Objective-C classes, achieving incredible speed, taking advantage of Objective-C and LLVM technologies.
Now, I want my late '90s Slashdot back please, where you could more easily find insightful and informative comments. There's a lot of garbage and Microsoft apologists nowadays.
Apple filed a series of official answers to queries from the Federal Communications Commission, and provided the answers publicly on its Web site. In the responses, Apple stated that Google Voice was, contrary to media reports, not rejected from the App Store, but remains under review. In addition, it stated that the software has been delayed solely by Apple.
We got tired of trying antivirus software. We're now migrating to Ubuntu.
Most of the computers are used for very basic stuff for which there are open source equivalents (web surfing, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, mail merge.)
For the special ones with in-house Windows-only software, we are either using wine or setting up Terminal Services servers.
The last time I looked at GTK+ there was this issue about GNOME people trying to tell GTK people what to do. Back then, GNOME was, you know, just one of many projects using The GIMP ToolKit.
I was using Ubuntu Jaunty too, with a Windows XP theme, for most of my users.
The only thing that refrains me from using Kubuntu for my users right now, besides many days of previous testing, is that it seems to require a lot of RAM (which I'm verifying again on Monday). X only was using around 380 MB. Most of my users' PCs have at most 512 MB of RAM.
We're working on alternatives anyways: buy more RAM, buy new PCs and/or XDMCP.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course it is. Smalltalk is a live language. JP Morgan for instance is one of the largest users of Smalltalk.
There are companies today making a living out of writing software in Smalltalk. Even successful companies selling implementations of Smalltalk like Cincom.
Smalltalk is not a language from the past. It is the language of the future. Java held us back for years.
Oh you have no idea.
Smalltalk is not in the past; it is the future, and is happening right now.
Anything you know today is just a bad implementation of Smalltalk (or Lisp.)
I was surprised, maybe shocked, by how much Smalltalk has contributed to the world[1], how far we have deviated from it[2], and how slowly we are converging to it again[3].
[1] object oriented programming, virtual machine, just-in-time compilation, test-driven development, Model-View-Controller design pattern, object databases
[2] inventing problems by trying to coerce static typed programming languages to behave like dynamic ones (Java, Go, et cetera, I'm looking at you)
[3] by slowly incorporating Smalltalk features into current popular programming languages. Ruby for instance is heavily based on Smalltalk.
Pharo Smalltalk is an even better experience.
Try Ars Technica. Really.
About your signature, let me recommend you Ars Technica.
Stop spreading non-sense.
There's no such merge and I challenge you to prove it otherwise.
Corruption in the other hand, is a cancer that no country can say it's free of.
That is what SuperKendall said ("Even if you obsfucated the string ...")
Don't get me wrong, please.
I love KDE since 1.x. I've always hated GNOME since it was shipping with RH 5.2.
But I've been waiting for KDE and the whole Linux desktop experience to be good, and 11 years have passed.
Today, I have embraced Mac OS X for my personal desktop, and *love* it: I'm not looking back any more; I use OpenBSD for most of my servers of course; and for the PCs at work, I have succumbed to Ubuntu, a very customized Ubuntu that doesn't expose a whole desktop, but just a dock with only the applications the users need for work.
I fail to see why an easy to use desktop on Linux is needed any more, because all my three uses for a computer are already perfectly covered.
Not that I would reject using Linux as a desktop somewhere. Heck, I have used OpenBSD as a desktop. But just because I want to contribute to the project, or learn their internals. And for my users, it's better for them and for the company/institution that forget that they have a "Personal Computer": they don't; the machine in front of them is just a tool to get their job done. Then a whole desktop is overkill.
Wow, I'm surprised. But it actually explains some things.
I can't find a reference about it. Do you have link?
I would add "powerful" to your points (which I guess are limited to the desktop):
* Mac OS X: usable and powerful (great UI + great foundation)
* Windows: just plain convenient, thanks to the size of the install base and people familiar to it
* GNU/Linux: powerful, but not usable
Being said that, I'm actually using the three of them at work:
* GNU/Linux for the people that is responsible for a few and very specific tasks for which Ubuntu has been customized. :)
* Windows for the yet-to-be-converted PC because of in-house systems or 3rd party software that require Windows and is pending of getting an alternative
* Mac OS X for people that know better. Which means the IT department
Having more libraries doesn't make a language more powerful; in any case, it would make it more productive.
The hard link you have in your mind between Objective-C (or the libraries available to it, since you seem to interpret it as the same thing) and GUI widgets is just supported by your ignorance.
Besides, I don't get what's the big deal about learning Objective-C. It's a real C superset and heavily inspired by Smalltalk. Ruby programmers would feel at home. Who wouldn't like to think of Smalltalk or Ruby while writing real world solutions at close-to-the-metal speed.
I'm honestly surprised how ignorant and lazy the regular slashdotter has become with the years.
Any self-respected geek should be already keeping up to date with Apple advancements which are and will be impacting techology in the years to come.
If you people haven't noticed already, Apple has been consistently releasing libraries and server software as open source projects for the rest to pick up , use and modify, with liberal licenses.
A friend of mine used to say (can't remember exactly... paraphrasing:)
* Microsoft wants all software to be theirs
* GNU wants all software to be free
* BSD wants all software to be better
And releasing GCD, gentlemen, is another master stroke by Apple, just like WebKit, Bonjour, LLVM, the list goes on, to share knowledge and advance technology by merit, not by forcing it down your throat thanks to the monopoly you have been handed.
The term "block" is familiar to Ruby programmers. It's an old concept which Ruby has made easy to use and hence popular and actually useful.
And here's another lesson which OpenBSD, Apple and Ruby have been putting to work without you noticing guys: any technology that is difficult to use, no matter how good it is, will not be used if gets in your way; the technology must be easy to deploy/use and unobstrusive to be actually used and useful.
Just remember SELinux and how many people just disable it, no matter how good it is (which I don't think it is, but that's for another rant). Then compare it with the technology that OpenBSD has been implementing for memory protection which is unobstrusive and ready to use with no extra configuration. Same with Ruby blocks, which more programmers are using and a lot of software is benefitting from it now, even though higher order functions and closures have been around for ages.
Having Ruby-like blocks in C and Objective-C is so COOL, you must appreciate that if you think you're serious at programming. Apple has already submitted it to be a standard. I believe MacRuby will benefit from this too, which is Ruby written in Objective-C, which implements Ruby classes as Objective-C classes, achieving incredible speed, taking advantage of Objective-C and LLVM technologies.
Now, I want my late '90s Slashdot back please, where you could more easily find insightful and informative comments. There's a lot of garbage and Microsoft apologists nowadays.
Apple hasn't killed Google Voice
+1 Sarcasm or +1 Insightful?
We got tired of trying antivirus software. We're now migrating to Ubuntu.
Most of the computers are used for very basic stuff for which there are open source equivalents (web surfing, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, mail merge.)
For the special ones with in-house Windows-only software, we are either using wine or setting up Terminal Services servers.
Finally, we're pushing Macs for the bosses.
Thanks, sir. You've made my day.
whoaa
I didn't know GTK+ was a subproject of GNOME.
The last time I looked at GTK+ there was this issue about GNOME people trying to tell GTK people what to do. Back then, GNOME was, you know, just one of many projects using The GIMP ToolKit.
I stand corrected. Thanks.
The way you put it sounds disheartening.
But maybe, just maybe, netbooks could be that proverbial Troyan horse.
And guess what: HP is already trying.
Let's see how it goes
Autocorrection can be disabled, you know.
iPhone OS is Mac OS X core. I does multitask, right now.
There's this random application crashing sometimes, certainly. I wonder how you get to know it's about lack of memory and not badly written code.
Anyways, if you're going to throw away your iPhone, just let me know where.
That would be GNU/kFreeBSD ;-)
I was using Ubuntu Jaunty too, with a Windows XP theme, for most of my users.
The only thing that refrains me from using Kubuntu for my users right now, besides many days of previous testing, is that it seems to require a lot of RAM (which I'm verifying again on Monday). X only was using around 380 MB. Most of my users' PCs have at most 512 MB of RAM.
We're working on alternatives anyways: buy more RAM, buy new PCs and/or XDMCP.
I think the picture is like this:
none < 2 < 1
Have you tried Kubuntu 9.04?, I have, for some hours of serious work, and everything was fine.
I'm honestly interested on any (preferrably reproducible) problems you have found in Kubuntu 9.04.
You've hit the problem: they don't see a benefit. But because they're short-sighted or risk aversed.
PC vendors would love to have Mac OS X on their PCs, and take Microsoft's foot off their neck. Apple won't allow that anytime soon.
What else can they do to differentiate their products and be able to compete by quality and not just price?